Slowly surrounding passerby changed their speed to look, gratefully stopping for a minute to stare off at men moving planks in the heat of afternoon. The men were nailing a criss cross pattern, a massive one, extending 2x4s up to the steps of the opera. On opening night, the royal family may still legally retain its box and draw the red curtains around itself, to pretend no one else is there. From underneath a raintarp came some gaudy, mass produced lawn ornaments. "Garden gnomes," they are called. The artist nailed their feet to the diagonals of wood.

---