King of Soda Pop

August 3, 2011 1:43 PM

Believe it or not: a portrait of Michael Jackson made from 1,680 soda cans.
posted by xowie (28 comments total)

"A Tribute to the King of Pop." I see what he did there.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:44 PM on August 3, 2011 [4 favorites]

It's what he would have wanted.
posted by ob at 1:46 PM on August 3, 2011 [5 favorites]

I hope they don't bring it to the UK, because "The King of Fizzy Drinks" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
posted by MuffinMan at 1:49 PM on August 3, 2011

I hear that one lucky can contains Michael's ashes.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:51 PM on August 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

30 cans high! (estimated by counting....)
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 1:56 PM on August 3, 2011

Needs more Pepsi.
posted by Hylas at 1:58 PM on August 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

A fitting tribute; Michael always did love Bubbles.
posted by 2bucksplus at 2:01 PM on August 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Seriously though: wow. Color me impressed.
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:03 PM on August 3, 2011

As records go, it will be hard to beat it.
posted by Shepherd at 2:04 PM on August 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't believe it! That's still an option, right? I roll to disbelieve.
posted by FatherDagon at 2:08 PM on August 3, 2011 [5 favorites]

One would hope that the cans making up his hair are Pepsi cans and filled with gasoline, and then will be set alight as part of the opening night ceremonies.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 2:08 PM on August 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

not bad
posted by exlotuseater at 2:08 PM on August 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

One well placed shot with a baseball...
posted by eyeballkid at 2:14 PM on August 3, 2011

"Brown, who came to L.A. from Minnesota about 10 years ago ..."

Believe it or not: a portrait of Michael Jackson made from 1,680 soda pop cans.

FTFY.
posted by jillithd at 2:20 PM on August 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Apropos of nothing, I've been singing "P.Y.T." in my head all day.

And I have a headache having not had any caffeine.

Coincidence?
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:24 PM on August 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hmmm it's like one of magic 3D pics - you can kinda see him if you look sideways and squint a bit....
posted by gomichild at 2:39 PM on August 3, 2011

I don't want to rag on this guy's accomplishments, but isn't this just pixel art writ large?

Take an image
Dither it down to 32 or 16 colors and reduce the size to 64 blocks square.
Print it out
Collect the correctly color pop cans
Construct, following the X/Y from the 64x64 image.
posted by unixrat at 2:47 PM on August 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

But why...
posted by Flood at 3:17 PM on August 3, 2011

unixrat: The (small) trick would be choosing a rainbow of pop cans, and then picking 16/32 colours that matched those, not vice versa.

The artist might even be using a copyrighted image as the starting point, a la Shepard Fairey.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 3:19 PM on August 3, 2011

Somebody already made a Pepsi joke? Sigh, okay:

The Diet Coke cans actually contain Jesus juice.
posted by box at 3:24 PM on August 3, 2011

a work an artist will never be paid for. News at 11.
posted by parmanparman at 4:13 PM on August 3, 2011

Q: What did Michael Jackson and soda pop have in common?
A: They both came in small cans.

::sigh:: I know, I know. I am a bad person.
posted by mosk at 4:28 PM on August 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't think I would classify this as a "sculpture" as the article is so quick to label.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:28 PM on August 3, 2011

I don't believe this...
posted by Windopaene at 5:01 PM on August 3, 2011

Previously.
posted by dhartung at 5:11 PM on August 3, 2011

Soda cans fade really fast outdoors.
posted by ryanrs at 5:13 PM on August 3, 2011

Soda cans fade really fast outdoors.

Pop stars never die, they just fade away.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:45 PM on August 3, 2011

Ripley's has hit a new low. I say this as a Ripley's fan. (And as a fan of high art, and (heh) Warhol.) This is really a big nothing. The lack of detail is dispiriting.
posted by kozad at 8:30 PM on August 3, 2011