LA WeeklyBy Eve Weston and Zachary Pincus-Roth
At the recent opening of Levitated Mass, better known as the “LACMA Rock,” the sculpture was heralded as a new landmark for Los Angeles — like the Washington Monument in D.C. or the ancient obelisks in Egypt.
Such landmarks are feats of human engineering and marks of civic pride but, more importantly, they are things in front of which tourists take photos. And within minutes of the ribbon-cutting, the rock was initiated into this grand, gigabyte-draining tradition.
Visitors quickly discovered the “I'm holding up the rock” pose, which consists of putting your hands up in the air raise-the-roof style and having your photographer squat to alter the perspective and make it seem like the rock is resting in your palms. Two weeks later, the pose is already a classic, destined to take its place alongside other legendary L.A. photo poses, like putting your hands in Jennifer Aniston's handprints at Grauman's Chinese Theater, or standing in front of the silver robot impersonator at Venice Beach.
But for a 340-ton rock, one pose hardly seems enough. After all, something this massive merits more than just a wall post — it deserves an entire Facebook photo album.
But how to fill it? Here are 20 other soon-to-be-classic LACMA Rock poses.
Credit: Zachary Pincus-Roth
20. The Hacky Sack
Credit: Eve Weston
19. The Globetrotter
Credit: Zachary Pincus-Roth
18. The Water Jug
Credit: Zachary Pincus-Roth
17. The Beckham
Credit: Eve Weston
16. The Shot Put
Credit: Zachary Pincus-Roth
15. The “Put a Ring on It”
14. The Engaged Ballerina
Credit: Eve Weston and Zachary Pincus-Roth
13. The Trained Seal
12. The Annoying Couple
Credit: Zachary Pincus-Roth
11. The Sisyphus
Credit: Eve Weston
10. The Atlas
Credit: Zachary Pincus-Roth
9. The Hunchback of Notre-LACMA
Credit: Zachary Pincus-Roth
8. Gulliver's Gravel
Credit: Zachary Pincus-Roth
7. The Tip of my Tongue (aka The Rubblelingus)
Credit: Eve Weston
6. The Cirque du So Heavy
Credit: Zachary Pincus-Roth
5. The Rocky Road
Credit: Eve Weston
4. “I'm Crushing Your Head, Rock”
Credit: Zachary Pincus-Roth
3. Rock Like an Egyptian
Credit: Eve Weston
2. Levitated Ass (aka Using the LACMAtory, aka Michael Heizer's Revenge)
1. Rock Hard Abbs
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