POTATOTEMPORAL

Wooden crate with four potato forms of various media atop.

Image: Potatotemporal (2024) Four potato forms atop of wooden crate.

Description:

When we were on site at Atelier LUMA for the Sustainable Institution residency, Patatutopia was on display in the Frank Gehry-designed LUMA Gallery as part of the Hans-Ulrich Obrist Archive – Chapter 3: Agnès Varda A day without seeing a tree is a waste of a day. The exhibition included more than 600kg of potatoes, something we knew presented a conservation challenge for the gallery. We were granted permission to remove two potatoes from the exhibition. Those two potatoes became a touch point for the rest of the project.

Potatotemporal is an artwork that includes 18 potatoes made from 9 materials, plus 2 real potatoes. As one of the potatoes from the Varda exhibition began to sprout, a cast was made, allowing the replication (cloning) of the original potatoes in different materials. The nine materials are materials that were readily available to us while we were in residence at Atelier LUMA and include:

  • Clay
  • Felt
  • Salt
  • Paper Pulp
  • Tree of Heaven (wood)
  • Sunflower marrow
  • Mycelium
  • PLA (algae-based bioplastic)
  • Hempcrete/cement
  • Potato

The potatoes will be carefully documented and artificially aged so that we can track the impact of time on each material.

Images: potato making, experiments undertaken at Atelier LUMA by Kelly Jazvac, 2024.

Wooden crate attached to wall covered with a transparent acrylic sheet. Eight potato forms sit atop of the glass made of various materials.

Image: Completed potatoes displayed on storage and shipping system, photos by B. Brookbank, 2024.

A special crate and display system has been created from leftover materials for the storage, shipping, and display of the potatoes. The idea is to extend our conversations on sustainability into the shipping and display of Potatotemporal.

Image: proposal for Potatotemporal crate, Tegan Moore, 2024.