Apparatus Whereby One Potato Can Orbit Another 1969

Curator: Before us sits Sigmar Polke's "Apparatus Whereby One Potato Can Orbit Another" from 1969, a piece comprised of found objects. Editor: My immediate reaction is a kind of whimsical unease. It looks makeshift, fragile almost. The cool rationality of minimalist sculpture undermined by…potatoes. Curator: Precisely. Note the table, seemingly a common object, yet repurposed as a stand for the implied mechanism above. The lines are simple, clean. The composition focuses attention sharply on the interplay of forms, materials, and space. Editor: But those “simple, clean” lines belie the absurdity of the concept. It's not just minimalist, it’s anti-monumental. It’s poking fun at grand narratives of progress, right? Two potatoes suggesting orbital mechanics. Is this about cold war anxieties? Failed promises of technology? Curator: That is certainly one reading, but it's not only about anxieties, is it? Polke is interested in undermining seriousness. I would say that the very idea of using "low" materials subverts established hierarchies, while engaging ideas of the every-day object promoted by the readymade and assemblage aesthetics that were gaining in the artistic vocabulary. Note the box, the string. These are deliberately… pedestrian. Editor: True. This apparatus is deeply connected to post-war Germany’s social landscape; Polke lived through immense economic hardship, material shortage, moral questioning and wanted to use materials that came to hand to express his scepticism of societal structures, artistic and social. It’s a rejection of the preciousness that defines art, by turning it into a sort of slapstick physics experiment, conducted with kitchen scraps! Curator: We agree then, the material and forms combine to defamiliarize what art can be, making room for the irreverent humor typical of his oeuvre. Its impact lies in the tension created by the juxtaposition. It questions conventions by destabilizing familiar symbols and structures. Editor: Ultimately it's a gentle reminder that perhaps we should view these constructs – be they artistic, scientific, social – with a knowing wink. A great potato powered antidote. Curator: It does reward careful looking, a conceptual structure expressed by minimalist means and with potent implications, I might add.