MECCATUNA: The act of taking a live bluefin tuna on a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Mecca to circumnavigate the Kabba, or
MECCATUNA: As in “the whole meccatuna,” an idiom for the entire universe and everything in it, similar to “the whole shebang,” or
MECCATUNA: Upon realizing that the word meccatuna did not exist, and that moving a live tuna would be met with great difficulty, the artist, through various contacts, located a man in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that would drive to Mecca, buy a case of canned tuna, document its presence, and send this to the gallery in New York, via DHL.
The exhibition consists of the following:
5 camel toe bones. Enlarged from a pre-historic petrified camel toe found in Florida, purchased on e-Bay.
5 life-size, white fiberglass donkeys. From Gibbon, Nebraska, via Cowpainters.com.
5 Mecca vulvas. Polished aluminum, cast from tubes used in Perfect World.
27 eight-count Ivory Snow PeaRoeFoam boxes. Palletized.
48 cans of Geisha tuna. From the Holy City of Mecca.
85 donkey cart ceramics. Original post-WWII donkey cart ceramics. Mostly made in occupied Japan.
550 vagina euphemisms. Multicolored neon tubes mounted onto 227 translucent, colored plexiglass panels with lace, elastic, and coated wire. Each with an individual transformer.
600 donkey cart ceramic copies. Made in Guadalajara, Mexico. Post Operation Iraqi Freedom.
2003 Honda XR50 motorcycle.
Camel saddle foot stools. Collection of about 20 original post-WWII camel saddle stools, acquired from various locations, via e-Bay.
Chrome "metro" shelves. Copies in various configurations.
Colored Snowball tires. Red, blue, yellow. From Snowball, Venice Biennale, 1997.
Donkey carts. Original, life-size. Wood, steel, and rubber tire donkey carts from Guadalajara, Mexico.
Ivory Snow PeaRoeFoam. Various configurations.
Gold Neon Transformer label. Altered and translated.
Heroic vagina sculpture. From Ivory Snow PeaRoe.
Kabba (cube) at Mecca. First built by Adam, then reconstructed by Abraham, later by Ishmael, and then reconfigured by Mohammed as the holiest place in Islam. Hand-constructed at 1/3 scale, with Legos. 1 million Lego pieces on Perfect World tube armature.
Lego. "Creator". 4107 (blue box). 1000, one thousand-piece sets. Total:1 million parts.
Los Feliz Costco/Wailing Wall. Ivory Snow PeaRoe sculpture.
Mecca model. (With illuminated lamps). From Ivory Snow PeaRoe boxes.
PeaRoeFoam ramp. Constructed from Waste Wedge, from DZ Gallery exhibition Impetuous Process, 2002. With Arabic pop music.
PeaRoeFoam wedge. From Impetuous Process, 2002.
PeaRoeFoam wheel. From The Liver Pool, Liverpool Biennale, 2002.
Perfect World tubes. From Perfect World, Deichtorhallen, 1999.
Tuna. Various types. Live, fresh, and/or canned.