It was an accusation of porn in the corn that aroused Aaron Landy's scorn.
The experimental filmmaker and documentarian was kicked off a 32-acre lot in downtown Los Angeles that has been planted with corn and turned into an art installation after officials claimed he had shot a pornographic movie among the stalks and husks.
Landy, 45, of Hollywood denies that any nudity occurred during the months he spent photographing local artists and dancers staging their own performances at the agricultural-themed exhibit called Not a Cornfield.
Landy alleges that he's being slandered and is demanding an apology from the Annenberg Foundation, which is financing the $2.2-million exhibition on state park property near Chinatown.
The conflict comes as harvest time arrives at what the foundation characterizes as a "living sculpture" that has transformed a onetime barren rail yard.
Landy said he photographed more than two dozen local dancers, poets, actors and artists offering samples of their own work against the cornfield backdrop before he was ordered out by project administrators.
He said he was filming a dancer in a colorful, flowing gown near a row of cornstalks Nov. 4 when project general manager Adolfo Nodal accused him of producing pornography. Nodal called in Los Angeles police and a state park ranger to force him off the leased park property.
Nodal -- former general manager of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department -- denied Landy's assertion.
"We never accused him of filming pornography. But there were people filming naked people. We had an open policy, but then things started to happen," Nodal said.
But Landy had his highdefinition video camera rolling during the confrontation and secretly recorded Nodal.
"You guys are shooting pornography," Nodal says on the tape. "You also cut a crop circle in the middle of the cornfield. You guys have been shooting porn in here. We have a lot of witnesses."
On the videotape, Nodal is shown telling officers that "these people aren't allowed here. We're going to kick them off every time they come."
The video shows police officers listening carefully, first to Nodal and then to Landy before acknowledging they needed to investigate further.
But the park ranger was quick to assert authority upon his arrival. He asked to view Landy's previously shot footage, advising the filmmaker that he would be allowed to retain only videotape that the ranger found "not objectionable," as he put it. The ranger warned Landy he would seize the camera if he found Landy filming again.
