Seven Weeks’ Lunch

Seven Weeks’ Lunch, 2016.  Aluminum sardine cans containing glazed white stoneware  glazed and fired to1970F/1077C (Cone 04) with various textural impressions of animals, plants, and fossils.  Wood frame. 92 cm x 72 cm.  $650.00

Sardines of several species are harvested around the world and their populations are threatened by overharvesting.  However, canned sardines are still available everywhere and in apparent endless supply.  Seven Weeks’ Lunch is a reaction to our increasing consumption of natural resources, whether for food, building materials, or prestige and uses 49 individual compartments, each of which is a sardine can.  To obtain the cans, Marty Huehner ate one can of sardines every day for 7 weeks and opened the cans only partially to assure the top remained attached.  Each empty can was then cleaned and refilled with fired and glazed clay replicas of natural objects.  Originally arranged for display on seven trays with plastic utensils and placed on a long table, this piece is now displayed as a wall hanging.

A smaller composition using this presentation style (Consumption without Context ,  see below)  was completed in 2020