The World in a Grain of Sand
Installation, photographs, paper screens, baskets, grainMarch 1975
Presented at the Artists for Democracy Cultural Centre in Whitfield Street, London, the work was a participative installation with related events, films and discussions, examining the political bases of agriculture and food production.
In a statement written at the time, the artist said, “The starting point for the work was the realisation of just how cut off people are from the roots of production of the foodstuffs which they consume. After a day’s work or in the rush of weekend shopping, no-one has time to consider the sources of the goods they must purchase. Parallel with this is the way in which people are encouraged to consume the world itself as stereotyped images.”
To enter the environment, visitors passed through a screen of clear plastic strips containing photographs cut from travel brochures. Inside, within a maze like-structure formed by screens made from newsprint paper, they found baskets filled with symbolic grain made from punched up copies of the Financial Times. Sifting through the “grain”, they found quotations, poems and statements about the labour of the people which produces our daily bread.
The installation was accompanied by a photographic exhibition “Fruits of the Earth in Decorative Art” by Guy Brett.