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The State of Éclairs
K.Horton like chocolate
The State of Éclairs is Horton's ongoing work where common chocolate bars are purchased from the local variety stores of his neighborhood and hauled back to the studio where he melts them down in a stainless steel pot and hotplate pouring them into prefabricated molds that will produce figurine horses approximately the size of one whole chocolate bar. "It took some experimentation. I kept getting the size of horse wrong by making a mold and then seeking out a bar about that size. Or I would start with the bar and look for horses about that size. And things were getting a little too expensive and taking too long - until I realized that I should be thinking more in equivalents than approximations. That's when I began using water to displace the horses. I had to get an accurate read of their volumes - from there I had an indication of the gram size of chocolate bar to look for. This would also work in reverse. The volume of the object is the amount of space it takes up and for the scale I'm working on I had a decent equivalent margin."- K Horton The melting down of a chocolate bar seems harmless enough; however it undoes a great deal more than their shape. Precision labor goes into the making of the bars as we know them. The chocolate bar's distinct shape, ingredients, and often brand impression come to symbolize a type and those types have created an enduring expectation. Kit Kat tastes like this, while Mr. Big tastes like that. We know this, in the same way we have come to know what to expect from an apple. Whereas the apple is a natural product and identity, the chocolate bar is not; it is entirely manufactured. A great deal of effort goes into that kind of identity, also known as product recognition. Companies do this by seeking out ways of getting universal values into their marketing mix. Food and drink companies concentrate on attracting an audience and getting them to consider their product as the only drink, chocolate bar or snack range that really satisfies their needs. The producer aims to connect consumer patterns and refine these into an understandable image/reputation. A company has only one chance of impressing a customer is satisfied with the product and goes for a repeat purchase brand recognition results. The consumer now recognizes the product with its name and attributes. He associates the product with a set of assets and qualities and this creates brand equity for the product. A chocolate bar's identity being manufactured in this way suffers greatly from any distortion. How could we possibly recognize a Kit Kat if we were presented only with its material constituents? What senses could we rely on to tell us what this pile of chocolate and wafer are? It is akin to the Wax Argument constructed by Rene Descartes. He considers a piece of wax; his senses inform him that it has certain characteristics, such as shape, texture, size, color, smell, and so forth. However, when he brings the wax towards a flame, these characteristics change completely. However, it seems that it is still the same thing; it is still a place of wax, even though the data of the senses inform him that all of its characteristics are different. Therefore, in order properly to grasp the nature of the wax, he cannot use the senses: he must use his mind. Descartes concludes; "Thus what I thought I had seen with my eyes, I actually grasped solely with the faculty of judgment, which is in my mind." This departure from perception has already occurred in the manufactured, chocolate bar which has created an arbitrary but reproduced shape already a departure from actual chocolate which is amenable to any shape conceivable. What you see with your own eyes is the liquefied wax that has cooled after the experiment. It already contains the departure. It is this predetermination that Horton's work challenges. As if you could return to the liquid moment and intervene. Yet at the same time he pushes the limit of our attention by again forcing the chocolate into another betraying form, the form of a figurine horse. 'Next' is the title given to all these horses; implying that this is merely the next shape and that others exist adjacent to this; in other words, a continuing act. Beyond brand-recognition there is what Horton's act achieves; the recognition of potential.
By Kristan Horton
