Styrofoam Tea Set

This functional tea set, hand carved from polystyrene blocks, questions how value is determined and what role heirloom objects play in a materially disposable society. The tea set’s white sheen references both expensive china tea sets as well as cheap Styrofoam cups.

The act of the artist’s hand in the production of the work, undermines the material’s inherent disposability and adds some measure of value, but perhaps it is a conceptual value rather than a “real” one. The tea set is technically functional (one can drink tea from it) and it even keeps the tea piping hot, however this sets it both in stark opposition to and also a strange kinship with Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain and Readymades.

2003
7 x 12 x 12 in.
Hand-carved polystyrene

Photo by Erik Peterson.