Skip to navigation Skip to main content

Paul McCarthy

Heinz Ketchup Sauce, 1974

single-channel video, colour
duration 17:30 min

The performance begins with the artist opening a bottle of ketchup with his teeth, emptying the contents into a small white bowl. He begins to rub ketchup over his naked body and eventually also over a table covered with a white cloth, captured in varying positions: kneeling, squatting, sliding about or lying. The clicking sound of the bottle lid clenched between the artist’s teeth is combined with his slow, heavy breathing, and intermittent groans.