Vacuum cleaners, or yard art?
Let’s say you’re in Denver on a long weekend, to catch a couple of concerts at Red Rocks (Alison Krauss and Robert Plant* one night, Mark Knopfler a couple of nights later). Let’s say that after you arrive at Denver International Airport, which seems to be conveniently located in western Kansas, you drive into the city for lunch. And let’s say, as you drive along, you see vacuum cleaners lined up in a front yard. Let’s say you keep that startling information to yourself, because…well, just because. And then let’s say that after lunch, you navigate your spouse back to that street so you can take a few photos. (Your spouse drops you off at the end of the block, and stays in the car.)
Then, let’s say that somehow, eventually, what you saw in that front yard begins to make sense….**
Denver, Colorado
photographed 6.20.2008
*Neither time nor Jumbotrons have been kind to Robert Plant. But the show was excellent.
**That part, the part about making sense? It hasn’t actually happened yet.
Posted on November 25, 2013, in Photography and tagged 365 photo project, denver, denver colorado, one day one image, photo a day, photography. Bookmark the permalink. 26 Comments.
One Day | One Image 
Oh, My! The spouse in the car, missing this? He must have been feeling humorlous that day. Knopfler I would have liked to see.
When (okay, if) someone makes a statue to me, I want it on a milk-crate plinth.
I think the sense in this is quite obvious. This is a training course for teenagers learning how to mow and trim around obstacles, without actually ripping the bark off of anything living.
But, if it is not that, perhaps it is a protest against the Colorado law prohibiting people from lending their vacuum cleaner to their neighbour? http://bit.ly/18BsNR4.
I note also that Colorado employment law permits 14 year olds to be employed using a vacuum cleaner. http://1.usa.gov/1ckT0m2 One has to assume that is only if they use their own vacuum .
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The Research Department has done some stellar work already this Monday morning!
I can’t think of a better explanation of this array of vacuum cleaners than as a protest against the prohibition of vacuum-cleaner-lending. That’s got to be it!
Or, maybe there was a loophole in the law, in the way “lending” was defined, and if one simply TAKES a vacuum cleaner – from a lawn, for example – it has not technically been lent, and is therefore in compliance with the law.
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I think that facilitating taking might be a form of protest, in these particular circumstances anyway.
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I’ll go back to Denver to check on these vacuums, as soon as I remember what part of town they were in. North-ish is about all I’ve got….
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They are on Monaco Parkway, if that helps any.
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http://bit.ly/1fCY1eE
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(Excuse me. I have to leave now, and pack for a trip that just came up at the last minute. To Denver, as it turns out. Monaco Parkway, specifically. Be back later.)
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An obvious ‘pleine air installation’ by a vac maniac, er… by an unrecognized artist… take it to MOMA, grass and all, to see it in its full glory.
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Over on my One Day | One Image Facebook page, one commenter called this Vacuum Henge. Clever name or not, I think it IS worthy of being considered an art installation….
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>>**That part, the part about making sense? It hasn’t actually happened yet.
You are very clever… both photo and words.
By the way, I think those vacuums really suck.
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“really suck” – I see what you did there.
(I was in the checkout line at the grocery store, checking my phone while I waited. Your comment made me laugh out loud. You might think that would have cleared out the line ahead of me. It didn’t, but I did notice I was the only one in line who was laughing.)
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STOP MAKING SENSE! But seriously, I spent a whole summer photographing my mom’s vacuum cleaner everywhere I went. It was such a fun project and I became so fascinated with vacuum cleaners since then. I could have spent hours here. Unless Mark Knopfler was playing Red Rocks. I wouldn’t miss that.
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“Stop making sense.” – Dvid Byrne, 1984.
My Research Department (who is VERY good!) found the street this place is on (http://bit.ly/1fCY1eE, in case you missed the link earlier up in the comments.) Let’s check the summer schedule for Red Rocks, find a concert we like and while we’re in town, we can photograph these vacuum cleaners in more detail.
Do you still have those vac photos you took?
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I scanned a few of the b&w negs from the vc project and they look good. Never posted them though thinking they may be to weird (even for me). I should tell you that my mom’s vc was retired after I bought her a new (and much improved) one. She gladly gave me the old one which, to me, had a lot more character than the new one.
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They don’t SOUND too weird, but I guess that’s your call. Ehpem, while not an attorney, is providing you good legal advice re. Vacuum cleaners in Colorado. Sometimes you can’t be too careful.
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Ken – what a great idea! Taking a vc everywhere you go. If you decide to continue the project, after a decent rest to let it mature, be careful in Colorado – you probably want proof of purchase because someone might accuse you of borrowing it, and throw you in the clink.
Are we going to see some of these “too weird” photos on one of your blogs? Soon?
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I, too, am going to watch for men’s vacuum cleaner photos. It’ll suck if he doesn’t post them.
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Or in Canadian, he’d be hoser if he doesn’t dare post them. http://bit.ly/17uI3G
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And nobody wants THAT!!
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This has to be the first outdoor museum for hoovers – the start of a trend perhaps. Seriously good concerts – Raising Sand was a fabulous album.
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I’d wanted to catch a concert at Red Rocks since I saw videos of a U2 show there (http://bit.ly/fobU6F) in the 1980s. It was a happy coincidence that we were able to see two shows there. And you are right – Raising Sand was excellent, and it still in frequent rotation at my house.
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It’s an invasion!
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At least they are marching away from the house!
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One step further towards world domination!
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I am OK with the vacuum cleaners taking over. As long as they’ll vacuum my carpet.
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haha!
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