August 30, 1981

The Vassar Art Gallery opened Splendors of the Sohites, a satirical exhibit of works “excavated” in the Soho district of Apple (formerly New York City) by “archeologist Evangeline Tabasco” and Sam Wiener, “director of the “Metropolitan Container of Art” (a large dumpster). Discovering a “hermaphrodite amulet” (a soda can pull-tab) in lower Manhattan, Tabasco unearthed evidence of a culture, either annihilated “or they may have just moved away” that neither farmed nor conducted commerce. When not worshipping their amulets, they created works of art obsessively: masks, gilded document cases, some containing scrolls (shattered VCR cases) and an array of breast plates containing the dual motifs, sun and sex (flattened soda cans). The work’s creator, Wiener, spoke at the opening ceremonies.

The exhibit, first shown in New York City in 1980, traveled to ten museums across the country.