Hot Potato

2018

Artist | exhibition

Featured as part of the group exhibition Queer Art(ists) Now, presented by And What? Queer. Arts. Festival at Archive Gallery, London

Images Elle Brotherhood

Whereas most sculptures are old dead men or hulking blobs (occasionally both), this bronze cast of a neatly folded Pickled Onion Monster Munch packet is a monument to insignificance; an ode to something that actually matters - the humble yet noble potato.

Chipped, fried, mashed, roasted, that’s what I call a legacy. Solanum tuberosum, we salute you! Designed to be handled in the palm, the owner’s skin grease will provide the resulting patina.

Hot Potato was conceived to trigger discussion regarding the medium of sculpture, usually considered beyond reach for the have-a-go amateur. Instead, I hereby grant the pub pastime of creating ‘booze runes’ the badge of folk art; the knowledge of how to fold these tiny crisp packets into tidy triangles handed down, from drinker to drinker, generation to generation.

A tool for conversation, exploring ephemerality vs permanency, the freedom of low-to-no value creative expression, and exploring if an act of mundane repetition - of making over and over, no matter how absurd the outcome - can result in validation of a niche expertise.