Summary
Potato Machine – Apparatus Whereby One Potato Can Orbit Another is made from a wooden bar stool. Polke has adapted it by threading a wire through the seat which extends towards the ground. A potato is connected to the bottom of the wire and another potato is positioned directly below the centre of the seat (when the work is on display both potatoes should be exchanged periodically for fresh potatoes). On top of the seat there is a switch mechanism. When pressed, this causes the wire to move in circles, swinging the attached potato around the other one. As a result the apparatus achieves its absurd function of enabling one potato to encircle another.
Until its sale at auction in London in October 2010, the work was in the collection and then the estate of the Swiss curator Harald Szeeman. It is evidence of Polke’s anarchic and humorous approach to art history. It was made at a time when many artists were turning to common materials such as foodstuffs in an earnest attempt to connect art making to everyday life… (read more)
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