It’s been a good month for McDonald’s and art. Along with the McMass culture jamming project that turned out to be an artwork, a Chinatown McDonald’s just had a sculpture show curated by ANIMAL favorite Am Schmidt. Unsuspecting seekers of Happy Meals found themselves in the midst of a pop-up show on December 11th. Schmidt tells ANIMAL her reasons for the location:
I wanted to have a show that exhibited works outside art institutional acceptance. McDonald’s was the perfect venue for this because of the polarity between its every-man association versus the elitism of gallery culture. Since the show is not an anti-McDonald’s gesture, I wanted to do it with the restaurant’s permission. As this ultimately took months of correspondence with the general manager, then the owner, who then needed corporate approval, permission emerged as the forefront issue.
That pop art/pop-up/populist sensibility carries over into the title, “I Just Finished Eating A Hamburger,” which was inspired by the pop king himself, Andy Warhol:
The title comes from the Warhol video — Andy Warhol Eats A Hamburger. At the end of the video, after eating the whole burger (which is from Burger King), he says, ‘My name is Andy Warhol and I just finished eating a hamburger.’
You can see the deadpan Warhol video below and check out all the artwork that was featured at Mickey D’s in the gallery above. I’m lovin it.
(Photos: Daniel Terna)
