The Epic Quest by Philip II for the Source of the Superlative Chocolate Bar
2016 • 10’ × 8’4” × 12 “ • Collage of chocolate candy wrappers (ca. 6,731 wrappers and foil liners, from 49 countries of origin, representing 755,216 calories—Yum!) on foam core and hardwood panels
…an allegory, perhaps, but I DID eat all the chocolate formerly in these wrappers! The scene is the Andean Rain Forest, and native habitat of the Theobroma cacao (cocoa-producing) tree.
As a kid, my favorite chocolate bar was a LOOK, dark chocolate over a long skinny nougat. Very messy! But the primary chocolate I was actually given most often was a mini tootsie roll.
When I was old enough to explore my neighborhood on my own, if I had a dime, I’d stop at the corner store. Once, at about age 8, I needed a candy bar. I’d evidently confused two brand names and asked the old proprietor for a “Dr. Goodbar.” He snapped around & admonished me harshly: “That’s MISTER Goodbar, Sonny!” (Nope, never made THAT mistake ever again!).
Working at a museum in upstate NY in 1983, a student intern, Donna Jones Wright, brought me a big shopping bag of Perugina Chocolates from her family trip to Italy – Perugia, in particular. The chocolate was excellent, and the candy wrappers colorful and elegant. After devouring the exquisite morsels, I saved all the wrappers to do something with sometime (and never have thrown away a chocolate wrapper since!) Well, 33 years later I decided it was now “sometime.” This is what ensued.
—Philip Carey (2016)