Thanks for the enthusiasm on yesterday’s advent calendar image!

For today’s image, I present a photo I took at Hannah Chidgey’s installation in the Oxford Brookes Undergrdauate show, Mum, Dad I’m an Artist.

Chidgey, in this piece, was attempting to bake approximately one loaf of bread per hour for the duration and opening hours of the show.

This is her washing-up corner; a revision of an artroom sink:

I found this, at the time, an intriguing but baffling piece; it certainly has resonance and history with other artists like Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ ‘Washing, maintenance, tracks’ performance, 1973, in terms of using the gallery or exhibition as a locus for performing and culturally evaluating domestic chores; but Chidgey develops on from this theme by marking the passing of time with her endless creation of loaves and her chores serve a kind of sculptural, time-based function rather than an overtly political one.

I don’t Chidgey’s piece was completely resolved, but the smell of all that bread baking was very evocative (how many artists consider smells when conceiving of exhibitions and engagement?) and the endless repetition of domestic activities made interesting and thought-provoking viewing.