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Golden Delicious

Print
2002 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Anne Rook produces art inspired by the food industry, consumerism and globalisation. Many of her works take food labels and packaging as a starting point. She gathers PLU (price look up) labels from supermarket shelves which provide a code to the retailer on the origin and price of fresh produce. Rook reproduces them in their hundreds, by scanning and then cutting out by hand. She then pastes these together, in collages to suggest made-up supermarket dishes, or, in the case of apples, directly onto the surface of the fruit,. She then scans again to provide flat images which are boxed in the type of plastic containers used to present ready-meals. Other works take the form of 'interventions' in traditional textile or wallpaper designs, where labels subtly replace fruit and flowers in the designs. Sometimes an actual tree will be transformed by a skin of label- printed cloth. These witty and decorative designs serve to remind us that food production and marketing is more to do with mass production and corporate profit and less to do with taste, flavour and ecologically balanced agriculture.

These works were displayed in 'Flypitch' a series of displays in Brixton Market, South London in which every Saturday over a two month period in 2003 a different artist was commissioned to fill a market stall with work which related directly to issues of commerce - but which also carried deeper messages about the nature of business, buying, selling and consuming.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleGolden Delicious
Materials and techniques
Colour inkjet print on blueprint paper
Brief description
Colour inkjet print by Anne Rook, entitled 'Golden Delicious', 2002 [blue and yellow: Golden/Oceanic/South Africa]
Physical description
Image of an apple covered with small oval blue and yellow labels bearing the legend Golden/Oceanic/ South Africa; with stalk sticking out at the top.
Dimensions
  • Sheet, irregular height: 18.6cm
  • Sheet width: 14.4cm
Marks and inscriptions
rook@dircon.co.uk www.users.dircon.co.uk/-rook/ (lettered at the bottom left hand corner of the sheet with the artist's e-mail and website addresses)
Credit line
Given by Rosemary Miles
Production
one of a number of images made up from PLU (Price Look Up) labels on Golden Delicious Apples. The National Art Library has a boxed set of six.

Attribution note: the boxed set 'The Book of Golden Delicious 4021 and 4020' in the NAL was produced in an edition of 100. This print is one of an unnumbered group of proofs.
Subjects depicted
Summary
Anne Rook produces art inspired by the food industry, consumerism and globalisation. Many of her works take food labels and packaging as a starting point. She gathers PLU (price look up) labels from supermarket shelves which provide a code to the retailer on the origin and price of fresh produce. Rook reproduces them in their hundreds, by scanning and then cutting out by hand. She then pastes these together, in collages to suggest made-up supermarket dishes, or, in the case of apples, directly onto the surface of the fruit,. She then scans again to provide flat images which are boxed in the type of plastic containers used to present ready-meals. Other works take the form of 'interventions' in traditional textile or wallpaper designs, where labels subtly replace fruit and flowers in the designs. Sometimes an actual tree will be transformed by a skin of label- printed cloth. These witty and decorative designs serve to remind us that food production and marketing is more to do with mass production and corporate profit and less to do with taste, flavour and ecologically balanced agriculture.

These works were displayed in 'Flypitch' a series of displays in Brixton Market, South London in which every Saturday over a two month period in 2003 a different artist was commissioned to fill a market stall with work which related directly to issues of commerce - but which also carried deeper messages about the nature of business, buying, selling and consuming.
Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
E.375-2005

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Record createdMay 29, 2009
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