The Thousands

Some people bin dive for the sticky bits of cheese melted onto burger wrappers and other over-looked morsels haunting trash receptacles.* Sam Cranstoun rummages through history and popular culture, selecting juicy tidbits to dissect and sandwich together in drawings, photographs, video and installation.

Cranstoun’s latest show, Oil!, unleashes his knack for the conceptual folding of historical material. Until we build a kick-arse time machine like Doc and Marty in Back to the Future, we’re stuck with experiencing history through mediated channels like photography, film and writing. Things can get a bit Chinese-whispers at times, and before you know it, “Hitler’s moustache” becomes “Kittens on hash”. Cranstoun gently reminds us that the notion of “truth” is as greasy as Bert Newton’s comb-over.

How do tins of Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup and religious institutions end up as bedfellows? You’ll have to pop over to Boxcopy to check out Cranstoun’s work to find out, but be warned – the calibre of this interrogation of history and truth might leave you in an existential crisis of sorts. Tasty.

*[I saw a guy doing this outside McDonalds. His feet actually left the ground.]