Dieter Roth - P.O.TH.A.A.VFB (Portrait of the Artist as a Bird Feed Bust)


1969
Bust of chocolate and bird food on wooden board 


This is a pice created by Dieter Roth this sculpture is a self portrait. 
It was put on a bird table and left to natural elements. 
This piece is a natural creation of self distruction. Created using organic materials and left be deconstructed. 
Roth used self exploration through out his life as an artist. He constantly used different disiplines to create portraits of himself, even collaborating with other artists.
Further more this isnt just a self portrait its a self predicted self portrait of what he'd look like as an old man created at the age of 38. 


I do not find this piece particularly fascinating  inits self as it is but what it is to become. When in berlin recently we went to the Hamburger Bahnhof I was fascinated by the sculpture "Gartenskulptur" by Dieter Roth and his son Bjorn Roth.
The piece comprises of many different items and is said to originate from P.O.TH.A.A.VFB. The piece was added too and added too to give this SELF portrait an extension of self. It has grown every time it has been dismantled and reassembled and now reaches over 40 feet. As an extension of self it contains drawings, paintings, wood, rabbit hutches, jars collecting wood resin and at one point contained a live rabbit. It goes further into collaboration when dieter Roths son added more and more too it as well as other artists. I found the piece fascinating due to the sheer size of it and how it made me think of a parent ship created by children as a den. It is extremely playful and experimental and looks in parts as if its functional. Now containing flowers, tv screens with footage of them creating the piece and even an office it has a liveable element to it and suggests life with in it. 


I find it amazing how this piece fills such a large space with great presents and the interaction of reinstalling it in different galleries and out side places changes it each time creates something new to change a space.