Many of us will be planning which artists’ workshops and exhibitions we’ll be visiting this weekend as part of the annual Palmers Green and Southgate Open Studios and Art Trail. It promises to be the biggest and best yet – large numbers of shops and businesses are getting involved this year, with shop fronts up and down Green Lanes and beyond already displaying fantastic artwork.
But perhaps the most astounding coup this year has been the unprecedented involvement of Morrisons, whose recent extended performance art piece has challenged Palmers Greener’s ideas about consumerism, what it means to shop, and what products naturally belong where.
Daily overnight relocation of products and reclassifications have given rise to exciting new juxtapositions which raise questions about the sourcing of food, not only in terms of food miles (eg between the bread and canned goods), but also “Where’s the bloody couscous (and is it a foreign food this week)”. I particularly enjoyed last week’s “Eggs with
luggage” still life, which left many transfixed.
In another new Morrisons’ piece, the arrangement of wine by the amount that can be got for, say, under a fiver rather than by style or region provocatively challenges our love affair with alcohol and explores issues around how much of the stuff can be loaded in a trolley for minimal expenditure.
In a Banksy-like move – and nod to the current mores of the art world – no one has yet revealed the name of the artist.
Could it be William Morrison himself?
* Morrisons’ “Is it art?” continues for the forseeable future opposite the railway station. Opening time vary. Check press before setting out
3 replies on “But is it art? Morrisons challenges our assumptions about shopping for this weekend’s Open Studios”
Confusing for both young & old – was this change for change sake! Ok, the extra space is a great idea – but the layout & redesign – What were they ever thinking!
You deserve our thanks for cheering us up with the amusing take on ‘Morrisons. Is it art?’
Thanks David!