Potato House (Kartoffelhaus) 1967

Sigmar Polke built this Potato House, sometime before he died in 2010, out of painted wood and potatoes. I’m interested in this idea of building, which has always been at the heart of artmaking. Here the house is made from potatoes, a humble material which is presented in an elegant way. The material aspects of this are really interesting. The wooden framework is painted a kind of institutional green, which already gives a nod to its art status. Then the potatoes are added at each intersection, secured in some way. Potatoes have such a great surface quality, like skin, slightly lumpy and irregular. I'm struck by how the potatoes aren’t uniform: some are placed horizontally, others vertically, giving a sense of irregularity within the grid. This makes me think of another artist, Eva Hesse, who was working in a similar vein around the same time, exploring the beauty in simple, everyday materials. The Potato House embraces the ambiguous, inviting multiple interpretations of what art can be.