Pot O’ Gold
11:35 minute durational performance
Video
2018

Pot O’ Gold                                                                                                                                               Choice Grade                                                                                                                                       Medium White Asparagus Spears                                                                                             Ingredients: Asparagus, water, salt, acidity regulator (E330)                                                       Product of China

I never knew asparagus was green. On very special occasions we ate tinned white asparagus; often baked into a quiche-like pie my mother made. Economic sanctions effecting food imports during apartheid resulted in fierce support for homegrown brands. However, luxury canned goods were available from China.

Minted
Hand pressed earthenware tiles,silkscreened Delft tulip design (c. 1650), cobalt; 2015

Analysts have compared the behaviour of the crypto currency Bitcoin to Tulip mania; a moment when tulips gripped the Dutch economy and imagination. Being highly coveted, the Dutch would cultivate a single bloom and place it the centre of a garden surrounded with mirrors. They went to great alchemical lengths to encourage a ‘break’ in the flowers which produced flairs of strikingly vivid colours in their petals to increase their value. In the 1920’s, plant pathologists discovered that a virus was responsible for this deviation.

“Blue and white pottery;” literally meaning, “Blue Flowers” developed from 14th century “bluish white ware” in China. Chinese export porcelain produced in the 17th century for European markets depicted Chinese and European scenes. Dutch Delftware became a competitor with imitation motifs on earthenware which reached the East where potters made porcelain versions for export back.

Set of Six
Silkscreen print
2018

Manet sold Charles Ephrussi ‘Bunch of Asparagus’ (1880) for 800 francs. When Ephrussi sent him 1000, Manet painted a single asparagus spear and sent it to Ephrussi with a note saying,   “There was one missing from your bunch.”

Bunch of Asparagus (After Manet), 2017,
Giclee print
30cm x23cm

I wish I believed in destiny
Vinyl
2018

Perennial Foe I
Pencil on paper
2017

Perennial Foe II
Pencil on paper
2017

Installation at RAUMX
2018                                                                                                                                                                                               Nicole Vinokur ( b. 1978) is a South African artist living and working in London. Her work has been shown internationally, including Camden Arts Centre, London; Modern Art Projects, Cape Town; Godart Gallery, Johannesburg; SHELF, London; Tintype Gallery, London; Bosse & Baum, London; Caustic Coastal, Manchester, The Hostry, Norwich; and The 50th Venice Biennale, Venice. She is the recipient of the Queen’s Park Commission, Blackpool (2016/17), Red Mansion Prize (2015) Artist/Curator Fellowship with Grizedale Arts (2014) and Young Vision award (2005). Vinokur graduated from the Royal College of Art, MA Sculpture (2015) and Pretoria Technikon, BTech Fine Art (2014)