Parícutin Volcano Project / Peter Hutchinson
About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 2008/2.233
- Title
- Parícutin Volcano Project
- Artist
- Peter Hutchinson
- Artist Nationality
- British
- Artist Life Dates
- (1930 - )
- Medium and Support
- photographs on cardboard
- Object Creation Date
- 1970
- Object Creation Place
- North America
- American
- Creation Place 1
- North America
- Creation Place 2
- American
- Style/Group/Movement
- earthwork
- Period
- Modern and contemporary
- Dimensions
- 81.5 cm x 50.8 cm (32 1/16 in. x 20 in.)
- Century
- 20th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Photograph
- Physical Description
- Two photographs of Parícutin volcano (central Mexico) mounted on cardboard, one below the other.
- Subject Matter
- Parícutin volcano is located about 200 miles west of Mexico City. Its eruption from 1943 to 1952 marks the first time scientists were able to observe the complete life cycle of a volcano, from birth to extinction, and greatly expanded our understanding of volcanism. Hutchinson’s Parícutin “project” consisted of throwing 450 pounds of bread into the volcano’s mouth and waiting for the bread to grow a crop of mold, which one can just make out as a faint smudge of white on the otherwise dark mountainside. The idea, he said, was to “juxtapose a microorganism against a macrocosmic landscape.” There was an exhibition in 1970 (possibly at the Gibson Gallery in New York) about the volcano project. The text of the gallery handout produced in conjunction with the show gives artist's account of visiting the Paricutin volcano near Guadalajara, Mexico. Peter Hutchinson, Thrown rope (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006), unpaginated.
- Primary Keywords
- bread
- conceptual
- documentary photography
- earthworks (sculpture)
- mexico (nation)
- minimal
- mountains
- photographs
- Secondary Keywords
- upward
- buildings and the land
- descriptors
- environmental art
- food
- geographic and political locations
- image-making processes and techniques
- international post-1945 styles and movements
- landforms
- landforms and landform components
- landforms by shape or position
- landscapes (environments)
- materials
- materials by function
- natural landscapes
- north and central america (continent)
- objects we use
- people and culture
- photography
- photography and photographic processes and techniques
- post-1945 fine arts styles and movements
- processes and techniques
- processes and techniques by specific type
- settlements and landscapes
- styles and periods
- styles and periods by region
- visual works
- visual works by medium or technique
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 2111 x 3390
- File Size
- 977 KB
- Record
- 2008/2.233
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2008-sl-2.233/2008_2_233.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Cite this Item
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- Full citation
-
"Parícutin Volcano Project; Peter Hutchinson." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2008-sl-2.233/2008_2_233.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 25, 2024.
