Bread Bandits
Action #1
Bread Bandits Attack Dupont Circle
The first Bread Bandits Art Action was completed on July 5, 1997 at the Dupont Circle fountain in Washington, DC. The Bread Bandits arrived at approximately 2 PM and began laying down a ring of sliced white Wonderbread at the curb of the fountain, completely circumscribing it with bread. The sculpture was completed by 2:30 PM, using 24 loaves of bread were used, or approximately 575 slices, and the Action continued with the distribution of broadsheet manifestoes and identifying business cards. (A copy of the manifesto is included in this webpage.) The making of the sculpture was videotaped and photographed.Judging by the responses of my assistants and the audience, the project was a success. I wanted to take art out of the galleries and bring it to where people hang out, and in the process shake up the Washington, DC art scene. A principle aim was to present art that people would enjoy, that would become a part of their environment, and that would initiate an immediate and pleasurable response. Most people I talked to were interested in the project and sympathetic with its aims. Many people were curious enough to ask specific questions. It was interesting how many kids responded to the sculpture. One little girl asked me why I did it, another was counting the bread slices, and some boys were petting a pigeon that was pecking at the slices. Prior to the Action, Michael O�Sullivan wrote about the Bread Bandits project in his Arts Beat column in The Washington Post ("Laying Down His Loaf," July 3, 1997); his interview with me may help explain the purpose of the sculpture: .
The manifesto accompanying this action started the chain of meaning attached to it by protesting the industrialization (or mass production) of anything until it becomes essentially worthless, valueless, or non-nutritive. The Dadaists expressed one of their goals as the making useful things useless, but I wanted to reverse that process and make valueless things have meaning and value�as art, or as political action. One of these meanings related to a protest that occurred in Rome several centuries ago when the Pope wanted to build a large fountain in the Piazza Navonna. The common people were starving and could see no justification for the planned expense, so they organized a protest at the site, at which they chanted "pane, pane, non fontane"�or, "bread not fountains." In a link to that protest, the bread sculpture signified a similar misuse of funds here in Washington. Millions of dollars are being spent on new monuments on the Mall while the District�s schools fall apart and its infrastructure crumbles. While these monuments are well intentioned, and the people they honor certainly deserve them, I wonder if the honor can mean much when basic needs are going unmet. And what kind of honor can it be when a monument is built to FDR when he only asked for a stone the size of his desk, and when an image of the handicapped is omitted, making it necessary to re-do part of the monument? What kind of honor is it to build a monument to Korean War Veterans when the monument needs fundamental repairs only 3 years later? Why can�t new schools, housing developments, roads, or other infrastructure projects serve equally well to honor these veterans and statesmen? Why can�t the money be used for basic needs first and for monuments second?
But in the most basic sense, I wanted to contradict the pattern established by the largely lifeless art scene in DC. During the planning stages, when I told people about this project, many of them laughed, and I thought that was the best response to the project. I wanted people to enjoy the sculpture and to have fun with it. I wanted them to respond to it in a basic way, using materials and a context that would not cause them to put up the resistance that arises when going to a gallery to view art.
I would like to thank those who assisted me in the realization of the Bread Bandits Action #1, and everyone who was interested enough to ask for further information.
Read
the manifesto for Bread Bandits Action #1.
See
documentation for Bread Bandits Action #2.
