What does a 142-day-old Happy Meal look like?
August 30, 2010
Comments on this story
(8)
Lesley Ciarula Taylor
STAFF REPORTER
The McDonald’s burger and fries that artist Sally Davies has been photographing every day for 142 days is sitting on a plate in her living room.
It hasn’t changed, other than to turn rock hard. Even her two dogs won’t go near it.
“Once that artificial smell went, they had absolutely no interest in it,” Davies, living in New York, born in Winnipeg and educated at Toronto’s Ontario College of Art and Design, told the Star on Monday.
“A little bit of the bun has snapped off because it’s dry as dust. The hamburger turned to stone. It wasn’t even rubbery, it’s like a petrified piece of wood. The fries still have that nice, golden yellow colour. But they’re hard as pencils.”
A vegan, Davies got the idea after a friend who owns a chain of successful burger restaurants teased her one time too many. She started documenting her McDonald’s Happy Meal daily on April 10.
“It’s sitting on a plate in my living room. The trouble is, I’m thinking of moving. How am I going to move? I think nothing is ever going to change.”
Davies, who has lived and worked in New York City since 1983, realizes her Happy Meal Project may be hard to swallow. Other people have kept McDonald’s hamburgers, unchanged and unchanging, for 12 years, or even in a museum.
“I’m not the first person to do this,” said Davies.
“And I don’t think it’s just McDonald’s.”
In the meantime, her apricot poodle and shih tzu are holding out for something recognizable in a can.
Featured Sponsored Listings