Axle Contemporary
OVERVIEW
For over two millennia, in many parts of the world, special breads have been used as a vehicle for a call to celebration. Hidden inside these loaves is a small object of symbolic value. When the loaf is portioned, the one who receives the object gains “royalty” and special privileges.
In The Royal Breadshow, we will host group sculpture-making events with professional artists, seniors, students, and others, to craft miniature porcelain sculptures. The sculptures will be fired, exhibited in our mobile gallery, then placed in the celebration loaves, baked by participating local bakeries. Loaves will be sold at bakeries, The Farmer’s Market, and in the Axle Contemporary gallery. Proceeds from sales will be split between the bakeries, the gallery, and organizations that feed the hungry.
All breads sold will be custom wrapped in baker’s parchment. On the wrapping, there will be information about these world traditions, aphorisms and reveries about bread, and a list of the participating artists and bakeries. Each parchment will feature a different celebratory word that represents a blessing, and an outline for cutting out a crown to be worn by whomever receives the slice with the sculpture inside.
IMPLEMENTATION
-Pay ourselves for organization, promotion, running workshops, producing exhibition
-Pay, bakeries for loaf production, artists for sculptures
-Pay for firing of small sculptural objects
-Rent space for workshops
-Buy clay
-Promotion of call-for-entries, workshops, exhibition, and project as a whole
-Documentation
-In-kind donations may be available to cover many costs.
DETAILS
Conceptually, the project has been underway for the past year, and has been refined in the past month.
Initial discussions have begun with bakeries.
Call for entries: Oct 11, 2013
Gallery exhibition: May 1st, 2014 (opening of outdoor farmers market)
Bread sales: mid-May, 2014
IMPACT
Bread symbolically represents life itself and the many forms of nourishment needed to enhance and sustain it. The hidden gifts suggest reason to celebrate, be generous, and enhance our interconnectivity. Artists, professional and novice, are given an opportunity to exhibit and share their sculptures in an unusual act of art distribution, engaging both reverence and playfulness. This show is in keeping with our commitment to present art in unexpected ways to a broad audience.
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