Preston Poling, an artist known as The Bearded Miniaturist, placed third in the Kentucky State Fair’s miniature contest with his piece titled The Casting Couch. At first glance, it seems like a tame and mundane piece. A black couch in a white-walled room with a gray carpet and a little dark wooden desk. There’s a butt-print on the couch. Fairly innocuous until you put it in context. It’s an accurate recreation of a well-known set often seen in casting couch porn videos. Excellent craftsmanship.
No one at the Kentucky State Fair was apparently even aware of what it was depicting until after images of the miniature went viral across Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. That’s when people online started pointing out what it really was. Somebody at the state fair with a stick up their ass removed the display after it was deemed inappropriate. Poling says that the removal of his piece is a form of censorship.
Videos by VICE
For a minute there, State Fair officials thought about disqualifying Poling from the competition entirely and stripping away the other ribbons he had been awarded this year: He previously won a Best in Show award for his miniature version of a set from The Walking Dead TV show. Thankfully, they allowed his ribbons to stay in place. Poling says his casting couch miniature was intended to get people talking because “that’s what art is supposed to do.” Hell yeah, brother. Hell yeah.
