Islip Art Museum, Historical Room • Islip, NY • 19 September–18 November 2012
“Potato Project Room: Unpacking My Potato Collection” was presented in the Historical Room of the Islip Art Museum and featured potato-themed artifacts acquired by artist and curator Jeffrey Allen Price over the previous twenty years. At the time of the exhibition, the collection comprised more than 5,000 objects from around the world spanning a remarkably wide range of forms, materials, and cultural contexts. The installation functioned as an archive in flux, with the artist continually unpacking, cataloging, displaying, and reorganizing objects throughout the duration of the exhibition.
Installation view “Unpacking My Potato Collection,” 2012.
The exhibition itself operated as a work of art, placing antique prints, photographs, tools, toys, books, and ephemera alongside artworks inspired by Price’s own collection. In a room too small to fully exhibit every object, much of the collection remained intentionally visible in labeled boxes, notebooks, and storage containers, emphasizing both the scale of the archive and the ongoing process of collecting and research. During scheduled office hours and special appointments, Price guided visitors through the collection and highlighted objects not currently on view.
Installation view “Unpacking My Potato Collection,” 2012.
Potato Tomes Obelisk (2001–2012), books containing the word “potato” in the title, installation view.
Price’s Potato Library included more than 500 books, magazines, catalogs, brochures, and printed materials in numerous languages from around the world. A portion of this archive was incorporated into Potato Tomes Obelisk (2001–2012), a tower of books containing the word “potato” in the title, stacked by size and presented as a monument to the full spectrum of potato knowledge—from history and agriculture to humor, folklore, art, and popular culture.
Installation view with “I Never Get Tired of Saying Potato”
A video installation titled I Never Get Tired of Saying Potato showed the artist repeatedly speaking the word “potato” on a monitor embedded within a pile of potatoes. Both humorous and obsessive, the work transformed the potato into a mantra while playfully suggesting the artist’s own gradual transformation into his chosen subject.
“Antique Potato Mashers,” from the collection of Jeffrey Allen Price
Installation view “Unpacking My Potato Collection,” 2012.
“Potato TV Station,” VHS collection of Potatoes on TV and in movies.
Presented alongside Occupying Potato in the Islip Art Museum’s main galleries, Unpacking My Potato Collection occupied the Historical Room from September 19 through November 18, 2012. Together, the two exhibitions offered visitors an opportunity to experience both the cultural archive that inspired the Think Potato Institute and the contemporary artworks that emerged from it.
Explore Further
→ Occupying Potato (2012)
→ The Think Potato Institute Collection
→ Living POTATOISM