carving

Taste the Future – Art in a Pizza Box 2017

 TASTE THE FUTURE – PIZZA BOX EXHIBITION GERMAN EMBASSY 34 BELGRAVE SQUARE LONDON SW1X 8QB

TASTE THE FUTURE – PIZZA BOX EXHIBITION
GERMAN EMBASSY
34 BELGRAVE SQUARE
LONDON SW1X 8QB

Open Day 7th September
11.00am – 3pm
8th September – 30th November 2017

In the forthcoming exhibition ‘Taste’ the Future – Art in a Pizza Box, I am showing my new sculpture ‘Manna from Heaven’ alongside 30 artists from 12 countries. It is open during Fringe Frieze. The exhibition continues until 30th November. I have attached more information about the Venice Biennale group.

MANNA FROM HEAVEN

The Pizza Box is a symbol of our age of convenience. Quickly ordered and delivered to ones door, the pizza is now a template on which many cultures are able to impose their palate. ‘Manna from Heaven’ is a sculpture and interactive puzzle seen from a bird’s eye view. It asks what type of future could we taste? Manna – Bread was given by God every morning to the Israelites on their exodus from Egypt to Sinai. It had to be eaten on the day otherwise it would rot. This prevented hoarding and greed for personal gain.

Manna from Heaven – Oak 2017 30x30x4cms

This puzzle sculpture plays on the premise that the negative space is as important as the positive. In one space, a conversation takes place by four figures that we see from above when we open the lid of the pizza box. These figures with abstracted heads and bodies converge and are inclined in serious deliberation. They occupy the negative space around an early Medieval Christian cross. Their ‘heads’ notch into the cross – the positive permanent symbol of Christianity.  It is as though they hold up the cross and complete the space.  The heads resemble question marks. Christianity is a puzzle that offers, for some, a way of managing temporal life.  For others, it has yet to be discovered. Religion forces us to ask questions about our lives and the nature of our existence.

The ‘heads’ ponder this puzzle as well as constitute it. Are these ordinary folk? The Evangelists? The Apostles? Are they receiving the Manna, succour from their faith?

We open the box and are invited to play. Without one or the other the puzzle cannot work.

‘Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.’ (Deuteronomy 8:13)

To view the full collection click here.