Kenny Pittock
Discarded shopping list. (Cold meat, lettuce, bread) 2024
enamel and synthetic polymer paint on aluminium
Courtesy of the artist, MARS Gallery, Melbourne, and Olsen Gallery, Sydney
Artist statement:
I first began collecting discarded shopping lists when I was 15 and got a part-time job at a supermarket. Anonymous shopping lists read almost like poetry and can act as a portrait of the people we pass in the supermarket aisles.
Most shopping lists are written quickly and without aesthetic consideration, and it’s through the act of slowly re-creating them that I allow myself the time and space to appreciate these seemingly mundane everyday objects, creating a permanent record of a fleeting moment. Here the humble post-it note sized shopping list has been elevated in scale to emphasise how often in life the little things are the big things.