KETTLE. 2005.

Edinburgh: Show and Tell Editions, 2005
16 x 15.5 x 8cm manufacturers’ printed cardboard box content of aluminium camping kettle with lid and handle. The kettle has been used once (as evidenced by the patina on the bottom of the kettle) and within the kettle are the remains of a brew of tea i.e. some previously boiled sprigs of heather (Culluna vulgaris) from Rannoch Moor. Each of the kettles from within this edition of 21 has been used to a brew of heather tea with water from each (in turn) of one of Rannoch Moor’s 21 streams or rivers, the heather was easily found next to the banks of each river. Each kettle is etched with the name of the river and also with the number of the edition and the artists’ name and date. The box is also signed by the artists.

Maris (a family of three) have been creating a number of environmental artworks for many years – recently reconstructing or rather deconstructing some of the Scottish actions of Joseph Beuys. This kettle references Beuys’ act of burying a lump of gelatine in the moor and the artist’s point to the theoretical homeopathic effect of drinking a cup of heather tea that contains some atomic trace of that original gelatine.

Rannoch Moor is a great expanse of peat bog in the central highlands of Scotland. It is the primary watershed of Central Scotland where rivers start their journeys towards the Atlantic in the west and to the North Sea in the east.  It has no road from West to East over an expanse of 20 miles. It was once a great forest but suffered massive deforestation due to the requirements of an emerging human population and later charcoal production.

Only 19 of the 21 kettles are to be released for public sale (3 being retained by the publisher and artists).