MORPHOTEQUE #15
DRIESSENS & VERSTAPPEN (The Netherlands)
Would you eat these?
Crops that are cultivated for large-scale food production have been selectively bred to produce increasingly large and regular-shaped foods. While the natural process of evolution usually engenders multiformity and diversity so that a species remains strong and adaptive, industry manoeuvres the process as much as possible in a direction of efficiency, uniformity and homogeneity. The ideal potato is oval-round, the ideal carrot is straight, not curved, and the ideal capsicum is perfectly symmetrical. Vegetables that do not meet the set standards cannot be sold to consumers, so we rarely see these variants in form at the supermarket. If by accident we do see these diverse forms, we typically associate them with disease, degeneration and ugliness. Morphoteque #15 reflects the human urge for standardisation by deliberately conserving the rejected products and highlighting the natural diversity within a species.
Driessens & Verstappen jointly develop a multifaceted oeuvre of software, machines and objects. Sources of inspiration include the complex dynamics of all kinds of physical and chemical processes and the genetic-evolutionary system of organic life that continuously creates new and original forms. Driessens & Verstappen have exhibited at a.o. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, Neue Pinakothek München, Science Gallery Dublin and Eyebeam New York. Their work was awarded first prize at VIDA in Spain in 2002 and the 2013 dutch Art+Technology Award.