POTATO PERFORMANCE. 1997.
£85.00
N.P. (Stockholm): s.p. (Bigert & Bergstrom), n.d. (1997)
18 x 13cm, unpaginated (c. 100pp recto only plus 200 black endpapers). Artist’ book of one of the duo’s earliest works – Potato Performance consists of a series of a hundred potatoes propped on matchstick legs. The potatoes were placed in a dark cellar during a three-month period, during which they grew many kinds of sprouts. The potatoes were exhibited, and subsequently photographs of them were published in this book that was sold to raise funds to benefit blind children’s right to take a state-subsidised taxi in order to visit friends—political issue at the time. Typical of the artist’s later socially engaged art, this is one of their very first publications. Very scarce. VG+.
The project underscores the anonymous potatoes’ ability to develop such a wide range of qualities as their sprout system gropes for light. The inherent power of the tubers appears with full force: the sprouts grow until there isn’t the slightest bit of energy left in the potato, which transforms into a petrified, wrinkled relic of its former self—a process which can take up to three years.
"Potato Performance," 1997 Potatoes, matchsticks Dimensions variable "Potato Performance," installation, 1997 Potatoes, matches, aluminum, Plexiglas 300 x 40 x 40 cm Photographer: Björn Keller
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