Four art students used carrots from a Lewisham art installation for a charity bake sale.
The original art installation, ‘Grounding’, gathered attention when 29 tonnes of carrots were dumped outside Ben Pimlott building at Goldsmiths College, University of London, on September 29.
The artist, student Rafael Perez Evans, stated on his website: “Dumping is a form of protest, regularly used by European farmers that react against a central government which devalues their labour, agency and produce to points of ridiculousness.
“This devaluation often produces an enforced invisibility, which is often reciprocated by farmers who create hyper-visible gestures by dumping their devalued produce.”
Four art students at the university, Yasmin Metcalfe, 23, Lily Fonzo, 20, Nancy Violet Jolene, 23, and Roo Gehring, 22, decided to interact with the piece by taking the carrots and turning them into food.
Gehring said: “We saw some videos on Instagram and we were actually a bit confused.
“There were bets on whether it was a mistake or not.
“Once we collected the carrots we thought about making food to give out to people, but we realized we could probably do something bigger by raising money.
“People can’t live off carrots, but if we can raise the money, then the local food banks can use it to buy whatever they need most.”
So far, the group has raised £1,604.46 by using 0.5% of the carrots in the exhibition.
The students conducted the whole operation from their flat.
(Left to right: Nancy, Yaz, Roo, Lily)
Gehring added: “I stayed up several times throughout the night and then somebody else would get up at the crack of dawn and take over the baking.
“We haven’t been sleeping very much.
“Art is often seen as something untouchable and very detached from the average person, something that only posh people with degrees can understand.
“For us this was never about cancelling the artist, or even protest against the artwork.
“It was about taking what was presented to us and expanding it to fill in the gaps we felt were left by the artist, in terms of transparency and community awareness.
“And I think that’s something that the art world needs more of: people engaging and reacting and taking charge.”
On his website, Rafael stated the carrots were unwanted and that they will become animal feed after the installation.
