Glasgow artists turn tattie display into community food project

ARTISTS Angus Farquhar and Rudy Kanhye have turned what was intended as a display at the SWG3 complex in Glasgow into a community food project.

As part of “An Empty Gunny Bag Cannot Stand”, 120 brightly-coloured hessian sacks have been distributed around the area, allowing households to grow potatoes on their doorsteps.

The bilingual title for the project, “Goni vid pa kapav”, drew on Kanhye’s Mauritian roots.

Once lockdown is eased to a sufficient level, the project will culminate in the potatoes being harvested, prepared, cooked and shared as part of an outdoor harvest party, complete with a specially-designed mobile chip shop.

Farquhar said: “With the current restrictions on gathering, we wanted to respond positively and think how we could still go about collaborating, to make things, share things, grow things; to use our isolation to work together.

“Community was always at the heart of this public art initiative, but now even more so through the support of my neighbourhood.

“When all this is over, we look forward to opening our chip shop at SWG3 and feeding Glasgow for free for a day.”

Read about the project at www.aproxima.co.uk/growing and watch a video about it at https://vimeo.com/418391249

Read more arts stories on Scottish Field’s culture pages – and more stories about tatties on its food pages.