Stony Brook University, New York • 2001
Created in the weeks following September 11, 2001, EMERGENCY PÖTATOFÊTE transformed a graduate studio commons area at Stony Brook University into a temporary potato-centered environment combining installation, performance, audience participation, music, storytelling, games, and collection display.
The project was originally conceived in conjunction with a visit from the Food Network, whose producers were traveling to document Jeffrey Allen Price for the television program Spuds Unwrapped. Rather than simply presenting a collection of potato-related objects, Price chose to create an immersive event that demonstrated the broader cultural, social, and performative dimensions of his ongoing potato project.
Photo courtesy of David Luke.
The installation occupied both the common performance area and Price’s graduate studio. Three walls were draped in burlap, while the floor was partially transformed into a stage bordered by rows of potatoes. The environment included artworks, found objects, collection materials, potato-themed toys, historical artifacts, clothing, and interactive elements. Among the featured works were Humus I (1996), a large mixed-media painting incorporating charcoalized potatoes and broken glass, a vintage bicycle outfitted with burlap-covered cargo baskets, a modified bumper pool table played with potatoes instead of billiard balls, and a growing assortment of potato-related cultural objects gathered from around the world.
Throughout the evening, Price performed a series of loosely structured actions and demonstrations. Wearing various potato-themed costumes—including a burlap vest, campaign-style hat with potatoes around the brim, Mr. Potato Head neckties, and a vest constructed from Lay’s potato chip bags—he played a ceramic sweet potato ocarina, sang along to potato songs collected from popular culture, conducted storytelling sessions, led participatory games, distributed blue potato chips, and staged absurd theatrical moments involving toy potato weapons and animated potato toys.
Emergency Pötatofête performance, 2001. Photo courtesy of David Luke.
Audience members were invited to play games, juggle potatoes, handle objects from the collection, ask questions, and become active participants in the event. Throughout the evening, visitors moved freely between audience member, performer, and collaborator. Rather than functioning as spectators, they helped animate the temporary potato environment and contributed directly to the project’s ongoing exploration of the potato as a catalyst for communication, humor, community, and social interaction.
In retrospect, EMERGENCY PÖTATOFÊTE represents an important transitional moment in the evolution of the Think Potato project. Combining exhibition strategies, educational activities, performance, collection display, and public participation, the event anticipated many of the approaches that would later reappear in POTATOLAB (2002), Potato House (2003), the Think Potato Festivals, and ultimately the Think Potato Institute itself.
What began as a response to a television opportunity became one of the earliest fully realized expressions of Price’s vision of the potato as a social, cultural, and artistic phenomenon.
Related Exhibitions:
→ POTATOLAB (2002)
→ Potato House (2003)
→ THINK POTATO INSTITUTE (Temporary Headquarters) (2010)
Related Timeline Entry:
→ The Think Potato Institute Concept Emerged (2001)
→ POTATOLAB (2002)
Related Documentation:
→ Institute Chronicle: Spuds Unwrapped (2002)
→ Institute Chronicle: EMERGENCY PÖTATOFÊTE (2001)