Potatoes are tightly connected to agricultural work. In our home the whole family took part in the process of growing them. These actions, like all sort of housework, are eminently monotonous. However, a repetitive working procedure can also be seen as a sort of meditation or a prayer. In the life of the Hungarian peasantry work and religion have always composed an inseparable and organic unity. I remember my grandmother's shelves full of religious calendars, pictures of saints, crucifixes, figures of Virgin Mary and rosaries. In order to preserve the memory of this life I started carving these images into potatoes. The conservation of the potato-sculptures is implemented with salt. With this phenomenon the moisture - the ’water of life’ - seeps away, while the potato itself shrinks. This process is connected to the distortion of our memories. The water’s disappearance from the plant is in parallel with the fading of our emotions when we look at one relic left behind by our ancestors.

On an exhibition view: https://www.gergobankuti.com/exhibitions

More info: 
https://swarmmag.com/art/potato-shrines/

https://molbert.brovdi.art/2017-2/en/novyny/sribnij-molbert-istoriya-uspihu-personalna-vistavka-gergo-bankuti-u-budapeshti

https://molbert.brovdi.art/2017-2/en/novyny/istoriya-uspihu-konceptualnij-proekt-potato-sculptures-uchasnika-sribnogo-molberta-gergo-bankuti