non-stick frying pan

The non-stick frying pan is a mass-produced household staple found in many homes across the world. Practical and easy to clean, its non-stick coating makes cooking and cleaning more efficient than stainless steel alternatives. Yet, the chemical compound that gives non-stick frying pans their signature quality played an essential role in the creation of the atomic bomb.

Using the non-stick frying pan as a vehicle for discussion, this exhibition and public programme positions the western domestic space as an active site where socio-political, economic and imperial systems are perpetuated and sustained. Despite carrying “connotations of comfort, privacy and protection… domestic spheres have never been sealed off, self-contained, fully self-sufficient extra-legal spheres, isolated from society”(Eibach and Lanzinger, 2020).

Extending the same sociological scrutiny to private and public spaces enables us to question our role in reinforcing systems of power, ultimately moving towards processes of deviation, disruption and dismantling.

This exhibition and public programme has been curated by Catalyst Arts Co-Director Emma Quin.