CURLY FRY (20 photos of objects arranged in space)

 

 

C̶̛̛̪̹̹͍̥̣̘̯͒̽̋̈́͛̚Ǔ̵̧͎̠͓̤͇͖̬͛͗͋͐̚̕͠R̷̨͙͈̭̫̲̊͆͑̄̆̃̏͜͝ͅL̶̯̩͙̺̦̝̟̱̑̒͊̌̓͂͠͝Ỵ̵̢̫̈́̿̊̈͗͂͘͝    ̴̢̛̤̮͓̗̯̫͊̅͒͐̀͜͠͝F̷̨̘̩͉͖̮̭͛́̋̃̍͘̕͝ͅR̶̭͈̹͙̼͍̼̈͂͐̂̉̅́̀ͅY̸̡̨͖͉̱͍͚̘̍̍̓̽̀͗̓͘   

 

My somewhat ironic take on modern art, 

A.k.a, braving social anxiety and being a moderately strange occurrence in Andrew Commons.

 

For this assignment, I decided to stick with something really simple, as I still have yet to choose an idea for my final installation piece. I was puzzling about what object(s) I might incorporate when, of all things, the Andrew Commons dining experience offered sudden divine inspiration in the form of a mildly interesting curly fry. 

This curious shape is all one very long fry, curled round on itself in a round oblong shape crossing over so that it looks vaguely akin to as if someone wrapped wire around a potato in the shape of an X. Or something like that, I don't even know... There has to be a better way to describe this thing. But regardless, I just kind of thought it was neat. I always enjoy finding interest in random mundane objects, albeit usually in nature and not in greasy cafeteria food that tastes mediocre at best. I suppose that begs the question then, why would a similarly formed plant stem or the like (assuming such a thing were possible) be considered beautiful and not a fry? Both seem fairly unlikely occurrences, regardless of whether they were forged in the patterned randomness of weather and soil or the patterned randomness of oil in a deep fryer. 

In this exercise, I have attempted to arrange the fry in a space that draws attention to its uniqueness, without removing it from the ultimate context of a simple cafeteria. To do this, I arranged chairs entirely surrounding an empty table as a sort of physical frame for the table to form a stage. Upon that, the fry and the ketchup I had eaten the other fries with were placed upon a stack of two empty plates in the center of the table an a facsimile of a pedestal.

 

Once I had finished documenting the arrangement at the empty table, the fry was brought back to the table where I had been eating lunch with my friends. Here, no longer isolated in a careful frame but surrounded by other half-finished plates of food, the object of the fry on the stacked plates ceases to be "art" and returns to its sad existence as mediocre cafeteria food. Taking ordinary objects and elevating them to that art status by arranging them in particular ways in gallery spaces is far from a novel concept, but perhaps there is a reason that it still persists-- it's simply really fun to do! 

By this time, the fry had already gotten cold and I had given the rest of the ketchup to my partner, but I decided I should nonetheless eat it as not to waste food. 

 Behold: the process of destruction, as displayed in possibly the worst timelapse known to man.

And before you ask, no, the cold fry did not taste good. 

 (The photos below were added before I figured out how to make a gif, but Blogger wasn't letting me delete them... let's just say that they're there on purpose, shall we?)