Cement Teddy Bears: "I had been thinking for a long time about making cement filled teddy bears. I wasn't exactly sure why. At first it was just a perceptual curiosity I wanted to experience, and I wanted others to experience: the idea of being handed what appeared to be a fluffy stuffed animal, only to have it go tearing through your relaxed fingers like a lead meteor.
The Christmas shopping season seemed an ideal time to get them on the shelves of Los Angeles toy stores, so late in November, members of the Los Angeles Cacophony Society gathered in my backyard to gut several dozen plush toys and replace their innards with Portland's finest.
We called them, 'Cement Cuddlers'.
Each bear wore a full-color laminated label identifying it as such complete with bar code from another toy. Inside the folded tag was the text:
Unfortunate Child, do not mistake me for a living thing, nor seek in me the warmth denied you by your parents. For beneath my plush surface lies a hardness as impervious and unforgiving as this World's own indifference to your mortal struggle. Hold on to me when you are sad, and I will weigh you down, but bear this weight throughout your years, and it will strengthen your limbs and harden your will so that one day no man dare oppose you.
The target was easy to select. Not far away was a large not-to-be-named toy store, the biggest and newest of the chain in Southern California, a massive thing like the newly christened Titanic just begging for its iceberg."
The Christmas shopping season seemed an ideal time to get them on the shelves of Los Angeles toy stores, so late in November, members of the Los Angeles Cacophony Society gathered in my backyard to gut several dozen plush toys and replace their innards with Portland's finest.
We called them, 'Cement Cuddlers'.
Each bear wore a full-color laminated label identifying it as such complete with bar code from another toy. Inside the folded tag was the text:
Unfortunate Child, do not mistake me for a living thing, nor seek in me the warmth denied you by your parents. For beneath my plush surface lies a hardness as impervious and unforgiving as this World's own indifference to your mortal struggle. Hold on to me when you are sad, and I will weigh you down, but bear this weight throughout your years, and it will strengthen your limbs and harden your will so that one day no man dare oppose you.
The target was easy to select. Not far away was a large not-to-be-named toy store, the biggest and newest of the chain in Southern California, a massive thing like the newly christened Titanic just begging for its iceberg."
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