Pop artist Ed Ruscha teams up with andSons to launch $295 chocolate bar
At first glance, Ed Ruscha’s collaboration with Los Angeles boutique chocolate brand and Sons may seem unusual. Until, that is, you remember that Ruscha is the creator of aromatic, ephemeral substances. chocolate room This 1970 installation was recently recreated for his retrospective exhibition “Ed Ruscha / Now then” at the Museum of Modern Art (2023) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2024).
original chocolate room It was created for the American Pavilion at the 35th Venice Biennale. At the time, Ruscha used a tube of Nestlé chocolate spread and screen-printed 360 sheets of paper to cover the pavilion’s walls. For the MoMA and LACMA versions of this work, Sun Valley print shop La Paloma Fine Arts (which has installed all but the original version) chocolate room) uses black Callebaut chocolate as the “pigment”.
Why chocolate? “I’m a little tired of taking traditional photos,” Ruscha told the outlet new york timesrefers to the driving force chocolate room. “So I thought I would use unconventional materials.”
The chocolates at Ruscha’s andSons bar are more customizable. The bar’s shape conforms to the topography of California’s Central Valley, an inland region of the state known for its agriculture. It uses three ingredients: Peruvian dark chocolate, sea salt from Tomales Bay, the northern inlet of San Francisco, and blood orange olive oil from Sonoma County ranches.
The stick comes packaged in an orange box with a larger cloth wrapped box inside. On the lid is a reproduction of Ruscha’s 1971 print Made in California. andSons is producing 300 gold bars, which will sell for $295 each starting in early December.
