Dough is a material that I have been working with for a long time, I’m captivated by its material qualities, stretchy, malleable, transformative and alive, coming from such simple ingredients, flour and water. A sculptural material that is sustainable, biodegradable and inexpensive.
Dough is a rich subject to explore, a basic material used across the planet to make a wealth of staple products – bread, pasta, noodles, dumplings, pancakes and much more with cultural and national variations of each. Variances on the staple in shape, texture, flavour, ingredients, methods of making, cooking and consuming create a deep culinary variety to sample and share.
Echoing the exhibition’s underpinning of the everyday and the exceptional, bread culturally and socially ranges in use from the domestic to the majestic, from the kitchen table to the religious ceremony.
Bread is edible sculpture for the table, handled, torn, broken, shared and eaten throughout a meal. It has a constant presence on the table to mop up sauces, to dunk in soups, as a vehicle for cheese or to savour on its own.
I have been making sourdough bread for over two years and I made a commitment to develop high-quality artisan bread weekly which I call Everyday Sculpture and Baroque Bread. Many are recorded on Instagram and eaten at events, exhibitions and with friends and family.
Progressing from using a Dutch oven in my kitchen at home, to setting up a micro bakery in my studio, I have brought production of bread into the heart of my sculptural practice. I do not distinguish between bread and other materials to make sculpture – they are all materials to manipulate, collaborate with, learn from and use to create artworks, it’s just that some are eaten.
What I love about these edible sculptures, is that they are made and eaten the same day leaving no trace other than photo documentation and a few crumbs.
Indeed, I make bread sculpture that must be eaten. Given that bread might be the only available food for some people It makes no sense to me to create edible sculpture that cannot be consumed.
Laura White
September 2025