Prayer Mill 2016:coffee grains, pestle and mortar, stool, hessian apron, nail, liquid coffee, 7 pieces of plywood Lubomirov/Angus Hughes, London (photo: Fausto Sanmartino)
Prayer Mill 2016 (detail of apron pocket)
Prayer Mill 2016 (detail showing sign painted in coffee)
Prayer Mill 2016 (detail)
Prayer Mill 2016 (artist performing the work on the opening night)
Prayer Mill 2016: coffee grains, cloth, pestle and mortar, stool, hessian apron, nail, coffee as paint, 7 identical pieces of plywood
Shown as part of ‘Fourteen Turns’ at Lubomirov/Angus Hughes, London. Curators Peter Suchin and Keith Bowler asked fourteen artists to respond to the 1911 painting by Duchamp entitled 'Coffee Mill'. Each artist was sent a piece of plywood in the same dimensions as the painting- the only other stipulation was that this had to be contained in the work somewhere.
‘Prayer Mill’ is a playful work that invites interaction, combining word play with sensual pleasure. Exploring the cyclical theme of rotation and masturbation so often alluded to in Duchamp’s work, and his juxtaposition of male/female elements in pieces such as ‘Fountain’ and ‘Prière de Toucher’ (Please Touch), this piece alludes to the domestic, the sacred and the sexual. If one were moved to take the pestle from its elongated pocket, put on the coarse hessian apron and grind the coffee grains in the mortar, a delicious aroma would fill the nostrils. A cloth is provided for the 'protagonist' to wipe their hands afterwards.
Artists included were Tabatha Andrews, Wolfgang Berkowski, Keith Bowler, Louise Bristow, EC, Nooshin Farhid, Peter Fillingham, Susan Hiller, Simon Patterson, James Rogers, Peter Suchin, Suzanner Treister, Julian Wakelin, Sarah Woodfine. This show began as ‘Seven Turns: Meditations on a Coffee Mill’ showing seven male artists at& Modelgallery, Leeds Feb-Mar 2016. For the exhibition at Lubomirov/Angus Hughes, seven female artists were invited to respond; thus deliberately juxtaposing male and female protagonists.