As I was trying to think of works of art I could recreate using food, Richard Serra’s One Ton Prop (House of Cards) came to mind. Serra, a minimalist sculptor, creates this work using lead antimony and four plates. The plates are not attached to one another. Instead, they all lean on each other, similar to a house of cards. When I decided to try to make this work out of gram crackers, I thought it would take 5 minutes. It seemed quite simple. However, after thirty minutes I was growing frustrated. Every time I had three of the crackers leaning, I would place the fourth, only to see all of them fall over…again. Finally, by some miracle, they all leaned long enough for me to take a photo. Needless to say, I have a newfound respect for Richard Sera.
Check out One Ton Prop (House of Cards) on the MoMA website to compare Richard Serra’s work to my House of Gram Crackers.
