Artist Paul Pescador has been switching salt shakers all over Los Angeles, leaving a stream of mismatched salt & pepper pairs in the wake of his dining experiences.
He explains:
I sit down at a table in a crowded restaurant. I pick up a saltshaker from across the table and place it in my pocket. From my jacket, I pull out a different shaker, one I took from the last restaurant I visited. I carefully place it next to the pepper and order my meal.
@Dolores
Me too! I’m trying to figure out where all these people are coming from. If you are that upset that by this salt shaker project, this is probably not the right blog for you to read. (Unless someone is playing a prank on us by commenting a bunch under different names pretending to be upset.)
Again, I–for one–am not “upset” by this “salt shaker project,” so much as I am baffled by the validation it has garnered here.
I will admit that this is my first visit to this site, and that I am several years removed from junior high school; so perhaps my appreciation for art of this magnitude isn’t on par with the more appreciative enthusiasts.
If the “project” was in any way “contraversal” [sic], it might benefit from some indirectly gotten merit. It’s not, so it doesn’t.
This prank is in bad taste…
This prank is in good taste. The customers still get their salt and pepper, and I don’t think restaurants need to have every shaker matching.
Dylan, perhaps you should open your own restaurant, one in which you can do whatever you please with the salt and pepper shakers, and encourage your patrons to do the same.
This prank is called “petty theft.” To some, it may seem to be the pinnacle of cleverness, a powerful and daring statement about society and learned expectations about one’s surroundings; but some are desperate and reaching.
Hey hotfive let it go. Clearly other people have different opinions than you. Who made you the ethical decider?
Oh, god, I did that for years with sugar packets. When I was in Maine, I saw some that said ‘visit scenic Maine’ and I thought to myself, well since I’m already visiting Maine, that doesn’t make much sense, but if I take some home with me… I thought it was hilarious when I was sixteen, although now that I’m a bit older, it occurs to me that it wasn’t really all that amusing. Though it’s at least vaguely funny.
Dolores, if you want only those sharing your opinion to post on this site, just say so. Clearly I’m not the only one who thinks “Salt Shaker Switcheroo” is tasteless and second-rate.
I’ve been doing a more subtle, more silly (IMHO), and cheaper version – which I trust avoids the “stealing” and “hassle” comments above. I travel a lot for work, and so have been moving pens from one hotel to the next (i.e. the Courtyard Marriott’s shows up in a Hilton, the Hilton in the Holiday Inn, …) – sometimes this is really subtle (like different locations of the same brand. Anyway, amuses me at least.
I find a hard time calling this man an artist. Some street artists are fabulous and do awesome, wonderful things. This isn’t. I expect more from this blog. What is the message that one should grasp from this ART? It certainly doesn’t make anyone laugh, really, as it’s just not quite that funny, and it’s not proving a point, other than one ought to keep their salt shakers under lock and key. I have a fine sense of humor, I just don’t quite understand why he is a ‘street artist’ for doing this.
Love it!
How can something so freaking mediocre as this be called `art` at all? Who the heck cares if the saltshaker matches the pepper shaker, for GOD`s sake? Is that all your life is about? What a thrilling conversation it could induce: `And imagine, honey`, the place had mismatching s&p shakers! Scandalous, isn`t it?`
Dear GOD.
I cannot find words, really.
The act of doing this is the prank and I think the point that you are all missing is that the act isnt the art. The art are the pictures he takes of the mismatched s&p shakers. Forget all you have read and just look at the picture at the top its like a couple with differences so they cant be together. Will you people just relax! I mean honestly he is changing one salt shaker not a resturaunt full and i work at a resturaunt and if that happened you know what we would do NOTHING!!!! So just relax
I`m so very relaxed, Robert. 😀 Still, it is not art, just suffering to be creative, when there`s no idea, no talent, no nothing interesting to say. (Otherwise, he could have bought salt shakers and take photos of them in different restaurants and leave everyhting as he found, so I think that was not the point.)