“We Have McDonald’s at Home,” as the meme goes, doesn’t necessarily mean that what is served at home is worse than McDonald’s. As we transition from the child’s eyes to the meme philosopher’s, as taste buds change and the yellow arches become signifiers for calorically dense, highly processed food and a capitalist system that, like the burgers at McDonald’s, seems vampiric in nature, immune to spoiling and driven by blood-sucking motives, our developed minds must reconsider what was served on our childhood plates.
McDonald’s at home, the aroma of momma’s cooking, begins to smell like an antidote to our prolonged exposure and embroilment in profit motives that have been poisoning us all along. We’re talking about fighting back against the punch to the gut by industry. It’s not necessarily about whether you like the food or not, but about the reasons why Coke is cheaper than water in some areas of Mexico, and why there are more McDonald’s restaurants than health facilities in the US.
McDonald’s is undoubtedly an institution. If self-sustainability is the bare minimum and growth (along with an implicit monopolization) the ultimate goal, then institutions must cultivate the belief that what they provide cannot be found elsewhere. Why can you only have good McDonald’s at McDonald’s? Why do people think you must go to a museum to have an aesthetic experience? What are institutions’ motives?
In our dealings with artists we come upon works and slip into the mode of collectors by sheer exposure. Being an artist, curator, or critic always seems to come second, because you’re always an enthusiast first—a fan of art(ists). How you relate to it and what it brings out of you, be it new art, or writing, etc. is an effect of that fanatic precondition.
The objects in this show have their own stories of how they found themselves in our possession. Some are gifts, some were acquired from the artists directly, some from gift shops. Some are originals, some are editions. Some of the objects teeter on the edge of not being artworks at all. The selection for this show highlights the home cook, who found their kitchen in our basement (shared with the other residents of the building).