...Three witches stirring it up in a cauldron…. attempting to alchemize, to distill and to ooze all the chaos and the all possible “all-ness” in it . . . " — [Mondongo Manifesto]
Mondongo is the word for a traditional Argentine tripe stew. It is also the name for the internationally renowned Argentine artist collective who will have their first UK exhibition at Maddox Arts this winter. Mondongo make their work from a ‘cauldron’ of ingredients: “We've used a huge variety of materials in our art, depending on what best reinforces the concept of the work, - it's always a process of experimentation until we finish it. We’ll keep experimenting with materials ‘til death comes!"
A favored medium is food, freeze-dried and vacuum-sealed in layers of resin, everything from slabs of meat to Oreo biscuits and Ritz crackers. It’s all about the lowest common denominator of consumer living - trinkets, cookies, sausages, jelly babies: the work revels in the tawdry and the grotesque.
All the obersvant fashion heads might have noticed some Mondongo images that Comme Des Garçons has used in the store’s 2008-printed material in the Dover Street Market. The Exhibition is on at the Maddox Arts until the 10th of January 09.
