Multiple Elementary/Ask Me Chocolates

Lucidchart Document thumbnail
snow ball sale thumbnail
snow ball sale thumbnail
snowsale_3 thumbnail
snap hats thumbnail
Sandy Plot­nikoff  thumbnail
vel­cro burrs thumbnail
trade fair thumbnail
reflec­tive but­tons thumbnail
sub studio thumbnail
cocoa pod mold thumbnail
Ask Me Choco­lates thumbnail
choco­late pour thumbnail
chocolate tasting thumbnail
intestines thumbnail
chocolate tasting thumbnail
trade fair thumbnail
trade fair thumbnail
trade fair thumbnail
trade fair thumbnail
Lucidchart Document
snow ball sale
snow ball sale
snowsale_3
snap hats
Sandy Plot­nikoff
vel­cro burrs
trade fair
reflec­tive but­tons
sub studio
cocoa pod mold
Ask Me Choco­lates
choco­late pour
chocolate tasting
intestines
chocolate tasting
trade fair
trade fair
trade fair
trade fair

Stu­dents from ‘Mul­ti­ple Ele­men­tary’ cre­ate com­po­si­tions with Sandy Plotnikoff’s snap hats. Toron­to, 2012.

Sandy Plot­nikoff vis­its the class to make reflec­tive but­tons. Toron­to, 2012

Stu­dents from ‘Mul­ti­ple Ele­men­tary’ cre­ate com­po­si­tions with Sandy Plotnikoff’s vel­cro burrs on the Bloor line. Toron­to, 2012.

Show­ing off reflec­tive but­tons made with Sandy Plot­nikoff, on the TTC. Toron­to, 2012

Sculpt­ing the cocoa pod mold. Toron­to, 2012.

Fin­ished sil­i­cone molds for ‘Ask Me Choco­lates’. Toron­to, 2012.

The first choco­late pour. Toron­to, 2012.

Ask Me Choco­lates is an art­work by Helen Reed and Han­nah Jick­ling, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with a grade 6 class at “Mul­ti­ple Ele­men­tary.” Ask Me Choco­lates is a series of lim­it­ed edi­tion artist mul­ti­ples, made with both milk and dark chocolate.

A choco­late is nev­er just a choco­late. Choco­lates car­ry sto­ries, like the East­er Bun­ny fable, and relate to long and rich his­to­ries like the impor­tance of cacao beans in Mayan cul­tures. Cacao trav­els vast dis­tances, pass­es through many hands and changes form mul­ti­ple times before it arrives at our near-by stores. Some choco­late bars hold a mys­tery — how do they get the caramel inside? Oth­ers trans­mit infor­ma­tion about their coun­try of ori­gin and the farm­ers who har­vest­ed the beans.

As artists, researchers, and ama­teur choco­latiers, we have pro­duced this col­lec­tion of choco­lates as minia­ture sculp­tures and sto­ry frag­ments. Like choco­late bars, these mul­ti­ples are designed for move­ment and distribution.

Lead­ing up to the mak­ing of our Ask Me Choco­lates we have been: sell­ing snow­balls, using the sub­way as a stu­dio, and vis­it­ing sites of choco­late pro­duc­tion. We have learned about trade, artists’ mul­ti­ples, the his­to­ry of bath­room humor in art, child slaves in the cacao indus­try, ‘labour­ness’ and artists’ inter­ven­tions into the world of com­merce. We are think­ing of this as ‘mul­ti­ple learning.’