Last weekend I added my Museum of Surprise Packaging to twenty-nine other collections of the strange and wonderful for one day only at an annual Art Workers Guild special event, the Table Top Museums. Last year I displayed my Museum of Dust. This year it was Puffing Sailors, a Pocket Trout and other niche delights. Since I was an art student many years ago I’ve been collecting striking or just plain surprising packaging, some of whose contents don’t always live up to their printed descriptions …
I included the Friskies Squeaking Chop, which I bought about twenty-five years ago in a Prague supermarket, when I was working as a travel writer, while queueing behind a couple of monks. When my daughter was very small we had a good luck ritual (especially useful if you were in a bad mood) called ‘Squeak the Chop’. To make my display more interactive, I encouraged visitors to make a wish and get squeaking. And they did.
