Bompas & Parr have brought the world pulsating puddings, vaporised vitamins and more foodie weirdness. Catherine Dawes finds out what’s next on the menu for the creative duo
Tired of munching your way through your 5-a-day? Then inhale your fruit. Fruit conserve not flicking your switch anymore? Try alcoholic jam infused with Princess Diana's hair. Jelly no longer floating your boat? Simple, get one that wobbles in time with your pulse.
Welcome to the weird world of Sam Bompas and Harry Parr, artists and suppliers of peculiar jellies to the world of art, music and celebrity. Now they could be about to break into the mainstream with their first-ever range of retail products.
Created for the Barbican's Surreal House Exhibition in July, the range of three alcoholic Occult jams are infused with peculiar artefacts, including sand from the great pyramids and eBay-sourced traces of Princess Diana's hair. At £5 a jar, the jams soon sold out at the Barbican's gift shop.
"We have two big retailers interested," says Bompas. But breaking on to shelves is only one of the focuses of Bompas & Parr.
It all began back in 2007, when their application to set up a jelly stall at London's Borough Market was turned down. Regardless, commissions started rolling in. Among them were requests for jelly recreations of famous London landmarks, funereal figures and even one for an absinthe jelly to mark music producer Mark Ronson's 33rd birthday. "Then we started getting jobs outside jelly. Still food-related, but they caused more interest," says Bompas. And things started getting really weird.
At the Ziggurat of Flavour a house-sized pyramid erected at this month's Big Chill festival-goers navigated a dense fog of fruit, created using compressors and humidifiers, before emerging at the top.
The Ziggurat wasn't just bizarre, claims Bompas, but nutritional too. "We worked with Dr Oliver Firth, who specialises in extreme environments. He worked out that it would be possible to contribute to your 5-a-day through breathing. Vitamin C can be absorbed through your lungs."
In July the duo created bioresponsive jelly. Dreamt up for Courvoisier's five-day Complete History of Food event, the jelly was placed on a table that measured an onlooker's pulse and synchronised and changed colour with their heartbeat.
"It could use ECG readings or skin moisture too," says Bompas. "Readings could be taken through cutlery with an entire room changing around you, so when you're annoyed the waiter knows to come over."
The pair's most ambitious project yet, a bioresponsive building, will be unveiled in 2012. It will tap into the mood of its inhabitants and the environment will change accordingly. Other peculiarities in the pipeline include a screening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in December, during which spectators will be able to taste key moments of the film.
But does such strangeness pay? Well, 2,500 people passed through The Complete History of Food, each paying £25. "But that's not really the point it's about doing things that are fun," says Bompas. "There's always a new novelty."
Tired of munching your way through your 5-a-day? Then inhale your fruit. Fruit conserve not flicking your switch anymore? Try alcoholic jam infused with Princess Diana's hair. Jelly no longer floating your boat? Simple, get one that wobbles in time with your pulse.
Welcome to the weird world of Sam Bompas and Harry Parr, artists and suppliers of peculiar jellies to the world of art, music and celebrity. Now they could be about to break into the mainstream with their first-ever range of retail products.
Created for the Barbican's Surreal House Exhibition in July, the range of three alcoholic Occult jams are infused with peculiar artefacts, including sand from the great pyramids and eBay-sourced traces of Princess Diana's hair. At £5 a jar, the jams soon sold out at the Barbican's gift shop.
"We have two big retailers interested," says Bompas. But breaking on to shelves is only one of the focuses of Bompas & Parr.
It all began back in 2007, when their application to set up a jelly stall at London's Borough Market was turned down. Regardless, commissions started rolling in. Among them were requests for jelly recreations of famous London landmarks, funereal figures and even one for an absinthe jelly to mark music producer Mark Ronson's 33rd birthday. "Then we started getting jobs outside jelly. Still food-related, but they caused more interest," says Bompas. And things started getting really weird.
At the Ziggurat of Flavour a house-sized pyramid erected at this month's Big Chill festival-goers navigated a dense fog of fruit, created using compressors and humidifiers, before emerging at the top.
The Ziggurat wasn't just bizarre, claims Bompas, but nutritional too. "We worked with Dr Oliver Firth, who specialises in extreme environments. He worked out that it would be possible to contribute to your 5-a-day through breathing. Vitamin C can be absorbed through your lungs."
In July the duo created bioresponsive jelly. Dreamt up for Courvoisier's five-day Complete History of Food event, the jelly was placed on a table that measured an onlooker's pulse and synchronised and changed colour with their heartbeat.
"It could use ECG readings or skin moisture too," says Bompas. "Readings could be taken through cutlery with an entire room changing around you, so when you're annoyed the waiter knows to come over."
The pair's most ambitious project yet, a bioresponsive building, will be unveiled in 2012. It will tap into the mood of its inhabitants and the environment will change accordingly. Other peculiarities in the pipeline include a screening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in December, during which spectators will be able to taste key moments of the film.
But does such strangeness pay? Well, 2,500 people passed through The Complete History of Food, each paying £25. "But that's not really the point it's about doing things that are fun," says Bompas. "There's always a new novelty."
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