MOMENTS IN POT CULTURE: THE PUMPKIN

Words by Jessica Peace

The story of ‘Cinderella’ actually started back with the Greeks; rehashed every few thousand years it was Charles Perrault’s cheeky Cendrillon (1697) which added the slipper and the ‘pumpkin carriage’.

We stab our fingers every year whilst carving pumpkin heads because of an old Irish myth… ‘Stingy Jack’ was an Irish drunk back in the day, he was such a b*st*rd that even the devil was impressed. After a bit of trouble with Satan, Jack could neither get into Heaven or Hell and is still knockin’ about in Eternity with nothing but an ember in a turnip.

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama likes her veg bright, orange and bulging; through the 20th and into the 21st centuries she has knocked out pumpkin sculptures, paintings, infinity rooms, charm bracelets and polka-dot shoes: ‘I love pumpkins… because of their humorous form, warm feeling, and a human-like quality…’