BREAD PROSTHETICS

Bread Prosthetics:
Series of digital sculptures fusing extreme limits of value and fragility

Post-Cyberpunk Virtual Delftware NFTs




Bread is cut daily, but will not ever receive bespoke prosthetics; this seems futile, for the next cut is always imminent. Instead of a missing parts replacement, we replace the entire bread: bread can be regarded as its own prosthetic.

In that light, it seems somewhat illogical to attempt making prosthetics for bread. One could argue, in the eye of the inclined audience, the idea behind the sculptures is an adorable coup de coeur to emphasise the poetry of the futile. The intention is a different one: these sculptural dualisms formed by bread stump and porcelain prosthetic together are to highlight extreme limits of value and fragility. Both form a mirrored liaison of two related processes on different time scales.

If these sculptures were not virtual but physical, the materials for both parts of the dualisms would be the product of adding water to ground up natural resources, which are then baked together with heat. This unites them with almost every material synthesis humankind has ever attempted. Yet, that is about where the resemblance ends. The differences become apparent when both a porcelain cup and a loaf of bread are dropped onto a table, and the remains have to be eaten. In virtual sculpture, these differences are eradicated and they become mere constructs in our heads, as ephemeral as any story and digital art: As a profound side effect, they do not use space and material resources in a wider sense. They exist only to create a unique but fleeting notion in the mind of the viewer, and have no physically given impact on any material elements in the universe. This fleeting notion on the other hand can cause feelings and bodily reactions, and these energies in turn are also real and can influence the physical world. These sculptures here bridge this gap, they negotiate the boundaries of virtual and physical space, and hence are subsumed under the term “prosthetics”. 

Collection 1: Zeit Fur Brot
Collection 2: Bread And Games
Collection 3: Le Pain Quotidien