See the Adorable New Grocery Store in Rockefeller Center, Where Everything Is Art—and It’s All on Sale for as Little as $5

Two years after her hand-crafted felt
bodega delighted hoards of New Yorkers, British artist Lucy
Sparrow is back in Manhattan, setting up shop at Rockefeller Center
courtesy of the Art Production Fund. Everything in the interactive
public art project is available for purchase—some 30,000 adorable
foodstuffs in total.

For her second project in the city, Sparrow has gone decidedly
upscale, drawing inspiration from fancy grocery stores like the
now-faded New York
institution Dean & Deluca.

“It’s funny. Luxury food isn’t something I know much about
because I’m not a foodie or anything like that,” Sparrow told
artnet News at the exhibition press preview. “But New York is one
of those cities where you’ve got these very high-end delis where
food has become as much of an art as art.”

Where her installation 8 ‘Till Late back in
2017 had smokes for sale behind the register and all manner of
frozen foods, candy bars, and cleaning products on offer,
Delicatessen on 6th specializes in fresh produce,
with organic kale, ripe avocados, and tidy bunches of spring onions
displayed in rustic wooden crates. The deli counter with its cold
cuts and sliced cheese is out, replaced by a butcher station
featuring freshly ground beef and premium cuts of meat. All in
felt.

You’ll also find all manner of soft-sculpture seafood, including
ruby red lobsters, shiny sardines, and oysters that you can
actually shuck, removing the smiling bivalves from the shells. For
the first time, Sparrow has created a cheese counter, a bakery, and
a patisserie, recreating every aspect of a fancy food emporium.

Per usual, the artist did lots of research ahead of time to make
sure she was accurately depicting her chosen subject. “I went
around a lot of delis and farmers markets,” she said, declaring her
favorite new piece to be the bunches of spring onions.

The resulting display fits right in at Rockefeller Center, sited
right next to frou frou cupcake joint Magnolia Bakery, of Sex
and the City fame.

8 ‘Till Late closed a full nine days
ahead of schedule, after its shelves were wiped clean of all
9,000 stuffed goods thanks to overwhelming demand. Thus, for the
new operation, Sparrow expanded her offerings, bringing on a team
to help her sew the tiny sculptures.

The Standard Hotel, which hosted the previous New York project,
brought Sparrow to the West Coast in 2018, where she created an
astonishing 31,000 pieces for Sparrow Mart,
a Los Angeles supermarket installation. Delicatessen on
6th is slightly less ambitious in its scope, given that she
has created fewer packaged goods, each of which come with
incredibly faithful hand-painted labels. This time around,
Sparrow’s painted details are mostly relegated to subtle details on
salmon steaks or grapefruit segments, while fruit and seafood alike
sport stitched smiley faces.

Despite the wild demand for her cute and cuddly work, Sparrow is
loathe to raise her prices, which start at just $5 for one of her
tiny pink prawns. “I still want it to be really accessible,” she
explained. “I’m just hoping it will last the duration, because if
you show up later in the month and it’s closed, that’s a massive
disappointment.”

Sparrow also has work on view elsewhere in the complex, 45
Rockefeller Center, where she’s installed blown-up photographs of
her felted sculptures in displays typically reserved for ads, and
felted aquarium and terrarium scenes in three window vitrines in
the lobby. The project is the biggest activation to date in Art
Production Fund’s “Art in Focus” public art series, which began in
December and has seen work by Joana Avillez, Hein Koh, Portia
Munson, and LaKela Brown take over the center’s public
spaces.

“We first saw Lucy’s work at the Standard and it’s been a dream
of ours to be able to do something with her,” Art Production
Fund director Casey Fremont told artnet News. “We knew
that this retail store was moving out and Rockefeller Center wanted
to do an interactive installation. It’s been a about a year in the
works, and this is such a fun experience!”

See more photos of the show below.

“Lucy Sparrow: Delicatessen on 6th” is on view at
Rockefeller Center, 1240 6th Avenue between West 49th and 50th
Streets, October 1–20, 2019. The project is open daily 11 a.m.–8
p.m.

The post See the Adorable New Grocery Store in Rockefeller
Center, Where Everything Is Art—and It’s All on Sale for as Little
as $5 appeared first on artnet News.