IS it art – or a kitchen disaster?
Longwood-based sculptor Suzanne North is presenting this burnt offering for her entry at a top London exhibition.
She hasn't just burned the toast – she has burned two whole cottage loaves in the oven to make her mark in the show.
And she admits that she is pleased with her work – even though many may regard it as another piece of bizarre art, following in the wake of Tracey Emin’s unmade bed, Damien Hirst’s cow and the Tate’s pile of bricks.
“All contemporary art brings mixed reactions”, said Suzanne, who had a studio at the Dean Clough complex in Halifax for many years.
“There have been art works, such as the banana sheep in Liverpool that people ridiculed at first then grew to love.”
Suzanne says the cottage loaves represent houses and the red smoke emitted from the chimneys is made of fluorescent acrylic.
Her normal work is done in granite or serpentine, but she has been using fluorescent plastic in many pieces.
“The work is about over-heating”, Suzanne says. “We are burning our life’s bread. We are burning the earth that feeds us. I am making an observation about the state of the world. We have selfishly used too much of the earth’s resources.”
The loaves will be shown in June at a Yorkshire Sculptor’s Group show, titled Born and Bread, and staged at the Chelsea Gallery on the Kings Road.
“All the work has to be made of bread,” Suzanne explains.
“It is amazing just how much you can do. Some group members have moulded dough like clay and painted it. This is the first time the group has exhibited in London and I think it’s going to be a really good show.”
