Photo of the day: Shanzhai Koons Cult at The Place

This week’s photo theme is China Plaza Xmas: ostentatious Christmas mall displays in China’s mostly secular megacities.

The Place is a mall in Beijing with a giant LED screen and plenty of places to spend money. Their Xmas display this year features a bunch of balloon dog statues clearly ripped off from the oeuvre of controversial contemporary artist Jeff Koons. In the outer plaza there’s this strange, cult-like assemblage of Koons ripoffs worshipping another Koons ripoff:

WOW indeed. Inside the mall, Koons ripoffs hang from the rafters above a stage where Koons ripoffs with what we assume are meant to be dreadlocks pose with plastic instruments:

Bizarre, but arguably more interesting than Koons’s actual work.