Las Vegas Weekly

June 17, 2008 · 9:50 AM

The scoop on the poop-inspired Planting the Seeds at Wynn LV

By John Katsilometes

It was the most inspired celebration of crap in Las Vegas since Starlight Express was staged at the Las Vegas Hilton.

But unlike the regretful Andrew Lloyd Webber skate musical, renowned contemporary artist Takashi Murakami’s poop-fueled Planting the Seeds did indeed use actual manure as the center of its simplistic, childlike storyline. The 12-minute animated feature, one of the dozens of events hosted by CineVegas, was displayed Tuesday night on the giant waterfall screen at the Lake of Dreams at Wynn Las Vegas. The film’s two main characters, Kailkai and Kiki, happily discover the more valuable property of manure as they plant watermelons along the great rural landscape. You could cut the excrement – I mean, excitement – with a knife as the crowd anticipated the rare viewing. Most of those on hand found this s*** pretty entertaining, and afterward Murakami laughed when I asked about his inspiration for the art piece.

“It is for children, and children like poop,” he said. “Who doesn’t like poop?” It was the first trip to Vegas, and just the second time he’d spent time with Wynn, whom he met in L.A. a month ago during a showing of the feature at the Museum of Contemporary Art. “Very good, very good,” was his initial opinion of our city. Wynn was joined by Las Vegas art critic and author Dave Hickey in introducing the segment, for which the waterfall was shut off. Wynn, who has been criticized recently for playing it in the fairway with his re-signing of Strip stalwart Danny Gans to headline at Encore, but inviting Murakami showed he’s still willing to paint outside the lines. And partnering with our local film festival shows he can be locally minded, even when the subject matter might leave one feeling … flushed.

Sorry. Long night.

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