I have so much to be thankful for that I don’t need one particular day set aside to remind me of this. Nevertheless, I happily will take the next two days off from my day job, hang out with my family, eat, and of course… fiddle with my art projects! I have an exhibition coming up soon (late January 2014 at the Carnegie Museum of Art and History in New Albany, Indiana) and I have been going through my Falls of the Ohio river junk and thinking about what this show might feature of my work? It’s going to be a two-person show and so there will be a great space to fill.
I recently went through my various river collections including my Fake Food Collection which is ongoing and I have added many new pieces over the past year. The Ohio River has been bountiful in fact over a ten-year period, it has been a regular liquid cornucopia. Although I haven’t counted each item, I’ll wager my Fake Food Collection has about a couple hundred pieces now… all of it collected one piece at a time, off of the riverbank. It’s interesting to think of this stuff as being a part of the fake food tradition. I’ve seen examples of fake Japanese sushi that look amazingly like the real thing…but not at the Falls.
After all these years, I’m still blown away…perplexed…morbidly fascinated and repulsed…insert other adjectives here…that so much of this stuff exits and that most of it is made from plastic. I’m just one person living near a river in the interior of a big country and this is what I’ve found at this single location. Do other American rivers flow with plastic produce and is it all floating towards the oceans? It’s so curious that we use a natural resource like petroleum to produce artificial food even if it is intended to be playthings. It personally strikes me as an affront to nature especially once it materially starts breaking down and merging with the substrates we depend on. Perhaps some of you wordsmiths out there will put your finger on exactly why this stuff is so provoking?
Okay…enough of that, now where’s the beef? Where’s the plastic meat the title of this post promised? I was curious about that myself and so I went through my collection and this is what shook out. Bon appetite!
Since Thanksgiving here traditionally means roast fowl of some sort…I thought I would start with a couple of roasted birds and drumsticks. Of course these items are miniature and I realize that a coin for scale would help. Okay, I’ve found my ruler and if you must know…the biggest object in the above photo is 3.5 inches or 9 centimeters long. The middle drumstick on the bottom row has a dark patina acquired from spending much time in the river.
This last image of roast fowl looks like something (probably the family dog) tried to eat! Notice the teeth marks on the carcass. Now that we are done with the appetizer… let’s move on to the fake hamburgers and cheeseburgers. I know the old salivary glands are probably kicking in now!
Here’s a couple of shots of the items in question. In ten years time, the river has washed up and I have found seven cheeseburgers and hamburgers, three loose bun tops, and yes…two crinkle cut french fries (only one is shown) all are made of various plastic recipes. Several of the burger toys I’m pretty sure were intended as dog toys. Some of the them still have the little squeaker in the bottom bun. The others probably came from children’s play sets. As you can see…they are variously dressed with condiments and the buns go from plain to featuring sesame seeds in white, brown, and black colors. I have some individual burger portraits too. Here’s several examples of how you can have it your way. The larger burgers are roughly life-size to slightly smaller than the real deals.
Ahhh…a black poppy-seed bun heavy on the lettuce and tomatoes.
Here’s a plain bun, segregate the tomato on one side and the lettuce on the other option. The meat here is more of a textural suggestion.
This is a gaudy burger with hints of mustard and two layers of tomatoes!
Not sure if that’s melted yellow cheese or more mustard squeezing over the edge? Looks de-lish nevertheless! If you are wondering what artificial food looks like in a natural environment…here are a two images of plastic meat as I found them in place.
This one has white poppy seeds on the bun, frilly lettuce, and a nice grimy river patina. Let’s leave the burgers and head into new territory. First an image of our next plastic meat subset.
I can remember the joyful moment of finding this rare double score. Two conjoined, Siamese twin plastic hot dogs resting on a bed of Styrofoam and river sticks. Of course, I had to take a picture! Now, for a snapshot of my hot dog collection.
As you can see…these tube steaks and buns vary in size. The largest example at the very top has all of its paint gone, but you can see where a fake mustard squiggle would be. Perhaps some of them are actually intended to be Vienna sausages, but who knows? One particularly prized find is the Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile whistle in the bottom right hand corner. I’ve propped it up on a plastic french fry to get a better side view. There are plastic meats that I know are out there (like fake steaks or even slices of plastic pizza with f aux pepperoni), but I have yet to find examples by the river. I do have a code I go by…unless I find it at the Falls of the Ohio…I won’t compromise my collection with non-Falls items. It’s a part of the quest and fun of what scrumptious simulacra will turn up next. Is Rack of Lamb or Pot Roast on the menu…only time will tell? For now, I will content myself with this Double Decker Dog…Happy Thanksgiving from the Falls of the Ohio.
Postscript: Less than a month after publishing this post…I found plastic hamburger combination #8 in the late December driftwood. Here’s a couple of images made in the field.
Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog 
Happy Thanksgiving. That is enough food to feed a village of plastic food eating types.
Exactly…kind of funny and scary at the same time. Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!
Hi. Have you seen any creatures, on your travels that have adapted to eating the plastic meat? A teacher asked me recently why is it that the local whales can’t discern the difference between a plastic bags, ropes and other plastic things floating in the ocean and Krill? What’s a girl to say!
I have never seen any creatures that have adapted yet to eating plastic. Speaking of the oceans…I have seen images of albatross chicks stuffed to bursting with plastic detritus their parents have tried to feed them. Those pictures are infamous now and proof that plastic has invaded even the most remote places on the planet. The Styrofoam predators that have evolved at the Falls mostly eat naturally occurring animals.
Pass the pete #2 mustard please.
The idea of realistic-looking plastic food is weird isn’t it? I wonder if people still decorate their homes with bowls of artificial fruit etc…?
You think MY life is strange? You have the largest plastic food collection I’ve ever seen (and the only one) and you think MY life is strange. Haa…really though, this is quite incredible! I’ve been down at The Falls for 35 years and have never found one piece of plastic food. I’m speechless! It’s really awesome…
I know…it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black! It’s weird, nearly every time I go down to the river…I can count on finding either an old doll or piece of artificial food. Now that you know this stuff is down there…I’ll bet you will find something soon.
Well I tell you, I’m certainly going to start looking for it. I showed Josh your plastic meat collection (see, those words should never come out of anybody’s mouth..heheh.) and we not only laughed, but marveled that you could find so much! As a child, I made a game out of finding home made weights, sinkers and hooks and combed every inch of the place for years- not one hot dog. Crazy! (By the way, we want to come to your showing in January. Congratz on that again! That totally rocks.)
I believe the art show opens on Jan. 24? I will post more info as the exhibit draws nearer…I think the Carnegie is calling it “The Potential in Everything”. I look forward to meeting you both.
‘I have been going through my Falls of the Ohio river junk and thinking about what this show might feature of my work?’
like you there are waves of fascination and repulsion about these finds – but the photos themselves are very powerful – scaled up I see all kinds of pathways to investigate – not to mention the sculptural possibilities – you did mention ‘totems’ earlier – great finds and what a fantastic collection – can’t wait to see where you take this.
Thanks Veronica…Although I do work with available physical materials at the river…I’ve always felt my approach was more conceptual. Frequently, the items I make or assemble into collections have this relic quality about them as parts to a greater whole. I guess that’s why I like blogging as a way to share my “researches”. Online, it has a chance to come together as an amalgam of images and words. Thanks for your comment!
You must have a big shed where you keep all these ‘treasures’ or perhaps you can build a shed with all them items a lovely post once again how the river keeps feeding you in more than one way
Alas…I don’t have a big space for storage, which is probably a good thing too! I recently lost a space I occupied in an old church when the property changed hands. What was stored in the church is now in my basement until I can decide what to do with some of these sculptures.
Thanks giving for the plastic fake meat relics obtained following a strict code of conduct along the beautiful Falls of Ohio. Thanksgiving for artists like you to tug our attention. Repulsive and eerily beautiful. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Thank you Annerose…the holiday passed quietly with family. And with a beautiful river giving me plastic meat, I felt no need to brave the bargain hunting crowds at the stores!
I am disgusted by the idea that so much plastic ends up in our oceans. Read about it some time ago and have mentioned it a couple of times on your blog, here. The items, above, that are damaged could go in my recycle bin and I know other cities have recycle programs much like ours. The ones that are still usable are accepted by goodwill. They re-market them and if other’s little grandgirls are like mine, they are happy to add them to their collection, once washed to create their doll’s meals. Anyway, I have found, if I follow the guidelines our recycle program outlines, I only end up with a three quarter bag of trash for the landfill in a normal week, not counting Christmas or Thanksgiving week. I cut my trash over half when this program began, here. That was the start of my reading on the subject of recycling.
I love that top photo. Years ago I saw a short news clip on an artist that photographed large cubes of crushed trash and painted his canvas using those photos for reference. They made fascinating paintings. Your photo of everything piled together reminds me of that…..
My family noticed the same thing…that when we based our purchases on what kind of recyclable packaging (or not…let’s hear it for “fresh”) an item had…our actual throw away garbage decreased dramatically. Now I’m beginning to wonder how much of this stuff actually gets recycled? For example, I hear there isn’t much of a market for recycled glass.
Except maybe in Sweden
The Scandinavian nation of more than 9.5 million citizens has run out of garbage; while this is a positive – almost enviable – predicament for a country to be facing, Sweden now has to search for rubbish outside of its borders to generate its waste-to-energy incineration program. It’s namely Norway officials who are now shipping in 80,000 tons of refuse annually to fuel the country with outside waste.
From
http://www.trueactivist.com/sweden-runs-out-of-garbage/
Hi Al.
[…] 3. Plastic Meat […]