Cooked
Bronze, oak, brass and fishing line
2010

In the ethnographic museum of the Louvre, Paris, is an exquisitely beautiful Zulu sculpture. It is both a wooden spoon and a nude figure of a woman, with the bowl of the spoon representing her head. It does not look like it was actually used for cooking purposes as the bowl is virtually unmarked. It may perhaps have been carved for a particular woman as a symbol of her womanhood, fertility and ability to give birth.

My spoon was made in response to this Zulu sculpture. Although not meant to be used for cooking purposes, it does show a battered wooden spoon which in its past life has been used. It is ‘clothed’ with a zip which has been stitched to the handle, and is ‘zipped up’, and the stitching at the back is clearly visible. It is displayed like a museum piece, on a small plinth and fastened tightly to a small brass stand.

This spoon also acknowledges womanhood, fertility and birth, however it tries to hint at the wider role that women play in today’s world. Having to work for a living as well as being a Mother.