In 2003, while working on The Museum of Fetichized Identity at Louisiana State University, performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena was detained and searched for nearly four hours after his suitcases full of gas masks, toy guns and other items were cleared through the security checkpoint. Stupid but Vaguely Threatening is designed for a performance-based installation to be placed inside a briefcase while engaging in air travel in order to question the nature of contemporary politics regarding commercial and international security, demographic profiling, and so on.. Its structure vaguely resembles a classic time bomb, but at closer inspection, the construction of wax hot dogs and broken watches reveal the ridiculous nature of the object. The modified wiener packaging also creates a tension between the harmlessness of the common sausage link and the malevolent signifier of the time bomb, which is a common metaphor for contemporary society in the first place.