Christopher Roth Patatine, 2024

The sculptures, brightly colored overdimensional felt bags with large pieces of drift wood doubling as French fries, are a humorous nod to the idea of Europe. Each bag a different color, with the term French Fries in other European languages, the work draws on the communality of the dish across countries and regional cuisine, alongside the differences.

The work draws on an experience the artist had outside a school yard in his in his Venice neighborhood. Seeing toy-look-a-likes of bags of fries displayed in a chain link fence outside the school, Roth was told by the young children they would only accept barter in exchange, no currency. To Roth, the children seemed to be imagining a world outside of the capitalist market economy. The playful understanding of an exchange economy and the communality of the dish across Europe than became a witty, lighthearted take on an ideal of Europe, and indirectly invokes the history of Marxist thought told in Roth's new film trilogy (to be completed in early 2025).