Today in Prague, I went on a David ÄŒerný sculpture hunt. My first sighting of the Czech sculptor’s work and probably the most visible of all of his publicly displayed and acknowledged works was the arrangement of giant babies with coin slots for faces affixed to the city’s TV tower. My Lonely Planet guide describes the piece as ”Creepy, giant, slot-faced babies crawling all over a TV transmitter tower; something to do with consumerism and the media, methinks.”

So, with admiration for his brain if not all of his work in hand, I circled the tower and its Babies, considering two of my most cherished topics: consumerism and the media. Equally as interesting as the Babies is the work in its geographical context (which gives it more points). The tower sits on the site of an old cemetary, the headstones cramped and arranged in an almost ampitheater-style seating arrangement to the tower. It’s a violent, organic contrast to the tower and its synthetic parasites. Er, the Babies and theirs?

Later, from the city’s astronomical clock tower, I spotted the Babies again, but from this far, they looked more like barnacles on the Jetson’s apartment complex. Even further off, from the tower of that famous bridge, they looked even stranger (consumerism turned violent strand of HPV?). Aesthetics have never been at the forefront of ÄŒerný’s work however, although he’s made some things that are really nice to look at; the early stuff was as much about destructability as attractiveness. And, in the spirit of Duchamp, beautiful ideas embodied (not necessarily beautifully) are the cornerstone of his body of work.

That and making money. Later, I discovered a snippet of his and his former circle’s (the Stunners) manifesto under a pile of books at the Franz Kafka bookstore. I’m not a recent art history buff, but I think it’s safe to say that its a marker of the pomo artist attitude. I haven’t decided how much I agree with it. I’m a fan of the pretty and difficult (I love form and content). But it’s still interesting enough to note here, especially since this is a site for people who want to make and keep money. Artists included. I especially like numbers 5 and 8.

…Form is not relevant. Neither is content. The only thing that matters is value expressed in currency. Art is dead. All that remains is the market and goods, supply and demand. Money does not age.

1. We demand a free market for art on the basis of “Highest Offer.”

2. We want a lot of money for our art.

3. We demand that lists of patrons and the filthy rich be made public, with emphasis put on foreign names.

4. We support the extermination of the insolvent Underground.

5. We support the establishment of management studies classes in the art schools.

6. We don’t want to go to the money; we want the money to come to us.

7. We want our art to be sold for millions now, not after we die.

8. We condemn all hostile attitudes towards money; we want to pay back money for the good service it’s done.

9. We want to be famous. We want money.

10. The Stunners are number one.

Also notable was one of the several pieces of stencil graffiti near the tower: “Low Cost Airlines Don’t Fly Where I Want.”

Well, okay. Nice Font. It is really a travesty that the rail systems haven’t stepped up in the current “Climate” to make themselves more desirable.

On to more weakly-related information. The following are the money-saving tips for travel that crossed my mind this week for both wandering bohemians and general frugal fries. (Sorry, I only thought of four, and they aren’t very original, but good reminders nonetheless.)

1) This first one is pretty widely known and has been mentioned a couple of times on Queercents. Using sites like priceline.com and hotwire.com can get a traveller a higher grade accomodation for a lower price. The sites advertise savings of up to 50%. The last time I stayed in London with a friend, we found a room at the Hilton just outside of Bloomsbury for the same price as a hostel for two.

2) On the topic of lodging, looking outside of the main touristy areas will definitely save a traveler a lot of cash. Do your research, but areas peripheral to main attractions also often coincide with the queer (official or not) neighborhoods in many cities. You might have to travel a little further to get where you’re going, but this affords you as traveler with a bigger picture of the place you’re staying.

3) The same holds true for dining. I am astonished at how many thousands of people are willing to eat right across the street from a tourist attraction. Even walking just three blocks will cut a third off of a meal.

4) Lastly, audio guides at museums and historical sites are the devil’s spawn. I wish I actually believed this. Unfortunately, I’m a sucker and have spent a small fortune on various audio guides worldwide. If you’re interested in the general idea about what’s going on, audio guides are often largely a repeat of information you can read on signs. I, however, am addicted to that one tiny and vivid detail that they never fail to offer up and that often works its way into a poem or other piece of writing somewhere down the line.

Image of the day (from the Prague castle audio guide): As pyschological warfare, the Czech army at some distant point in history, made a bunch of babies out of dough and roasted them over open fires as a spectacle to prove their savage and ruthless superiority over their nearby enemies. That’s some serious form and content.