{"id":694,"date":"2012-01-06T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T22:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/?p=694"},"modified":"2012-01-07T11:48:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-07T11:48:00","slug":"i-loaf-geography-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tankhughes.com\/?p=694","title":{"rendered":"I Loaf Geography Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tinker Plots World Domination in the Kitchen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

About this Project:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I Loaf Geography was created during a plane flight from San Salvador to San Francisco this summer. I had just visited my friend<\/a> in Peru, I hadn’t slept the night before, and had been travelling and waiting in airports for 20 hours. Suddenly mid-flight, in a semi-conscious state, I thought of the Spanish flag, and realized that the red & yellow of the flag could be replaced with ketchup & mustard. The concept was born.<\/p>\n

I started listing countries, mentioned it to friends over the following weeks, and at some point the idea changed from ‘silly’ to ‘silly but potentially exciting art project that I’m definitely going to try.’ I knew that some flags would be tricky, though it was rarely the most intricate ones that turned out strangely. I thought Canada would go very well, but the white space I left in the middle was not wide enough for the maple leaf I started to draw, and the leaf looks sad and flattened. Sorry, Canada.<\/p>\n

There was something very satisfying about creating a temporary piece of art, photographing it, and throwing it away. I loved having to focus on writing Tajikistan in ketchup, cleaning away bread crumbs for a pristinely white plate, placing the lamps, choosing the arrow’s angle, shooting each flag about 10 times, then throwing it out (unless I could use it again, see Libya & Bangladesh).<\/p>\n

When I finish a jigsaw puzzle, I always show someone. Sometimes I leave it up for a few days to show others, but mostly I tend to take it down the night I complete it, and never return to it. \u00a0Detailed work followed by a complete destruction of it is somehow wonderfully satisfying. In the movie Quality of Life<\/a>, a graffiti artist spends all night creating an intricate art piece on the side of a wall in memory of a friend, and then paints it over the next morning. He had witnessed the completion and immediate destruction of a sand mandala earlier in the movie and was inspired by it. Embrace your work and then let it go.<\/em> I think this is the same principle behind wanting to hug celebrities rather than take a picture with them. That is for another post.<\/p>\n

This project had many potential names over the summer, the best among them were Kitchen Table Geography<\/em>,\u00a0Bread, White, and Goo<\/em>, and The Condiment Manifesto<\/em>. My thanks to Ben<\/a> and others for their help in brainstorming.<\/p>\n

How to Make Condiment Flags:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The First Flag<\/p>\n<\/div>\n