Last week, Shepherdsville native Preston Poling won third place in the Kentucky State Fair’s miniature contest. Poling said the white ribbon-winning piece was “a simple design.” The miniature scene was a room with white walls, a black leather couch in the corner, a wooden office desk, a computer and a desk chair. The simple design Poling created was a smaller version of “The Casting Couch,” a popular pornography set.
Poling posted his entries on social media, and the casting couch received a lot of attention on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, he said.
On Tuesday night, some friends told Poling that his piece was missing.
“My first thought was, because of the publicity that had gotten going viral that somebody had helped themselves to the build,” Poling said. “So I went there [Wednesday morning] to investigate that and figure out exactly what had happened.”
When he arrived that morning, Poling said state fair officials told him his winning miniature was removed from display because it was deemed “an inappropriate build.”
The casting couch was one of four pieces Poling submitted for the contest. State fair officials also considered disqualifying Poling as an artist and removing his other entries from the competition following his win, he said.
Poling had also won best in show for his miniature scene from the AMC show “The Walking Dead” and a craftsmanship award for his miniature based on the book “Goodnight Moon.”
Poling said the state fair has since allowed him to keep his winning ribbons and the remaining miniatures on display at the fair. He said his "casting couch” entry was meant to make people laugh.
“It was more of a tongue-in-cheek, kind of humorous, if you get it, you get it kind of thing,” he said.
He said it was not meant to be inappropriate but he wanted to draw in a crowd.
“It gets people talking,” he said. “That's what art is supposed to do. Whether you like it or you don't like it, or you think it's inappropriate or you think it's too simple, the whole point is to get people discussing it and talking about it and getting excited to go to the fair. And it's definitely done that.”
A spokesperson for the Kentucky State Fair said in a statement to LPM News, “entries submitted to the fair are routinely reviewed throughout the event.”
After the fair is over, Poling plans to display the casting couch build in his studio at the Mellwood Arts Center, he said on Facebook Live.
Poling, known online as “The Bearded Miniaturist,” has been building miniatures since 2020, he said. Last year, he was one of the artists on “Best in Miniature,” a Canadian television competition show.
Justin Hicks contributed to this reporting.
