Ghosts In The Machine: Pulling The Plug
Palo Alto Festival of the Arts, August 2012

Our Ghosts In The Machine painting was designed to be interactive--visitors could pose as if they were joining our imps in their merry mayhem by miming the action of pulling out the power plug.

This is the power cord, plugged into a ground level outlet in the middle of Tasso Street.

Wayne discovered that once you plug these things in, it is difficult to get them unplugged.

Cheryl's dad said that he would get it undone. Unfortunately, even a father of mythical proportions couldn't unplug this one.

...So we tried bringing in mythical people. Little Red Riding Hood couldn't pull the plug either.

Since the mythical people didn't work, we decided to try celebrity. Cuong Nguyen couldn't pull the plug.

Nor could Super Madonnaro, Rod Tryon (search Google Images for his name to see a bunch of his paintings!).

So we resorted to cuteness.

This little girl had technique! But it didn't work.

Little brother tried next...

... then somebody's mom.

This kid's dad tried to give her directions. (he must have googled something on his iPhone on "how to unplug chalk paintings")

Teenagers have all the answers. (not always the right answers...)

Our niece Catie wanted to try. Lots of drama, plenty of flair, but she couldn't do it...

... so she called in reinforcements...

... and it almost killed her...

... lucky for us JD the fireman was there to rescue her.

So we just gave up.

..and left it plugged in.

Ghosts In The Machine | Street Painting Index
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