Christy Rupp (b. 1949)

…Other pieces in this series are more like one-liners. “Convalescing Staple Crops & Recreational Export Crops” is a series, including an ear of corn in a wheelchair while sugar cane zooms by in a convertible, and golden tobacco leaves luxuriating in a red plush armchair before a fire, as well as Rice in Traction, Cotton on Skis, and Coffee and Tea Play Ball. Inextricable from these themes is the Latin American debt, which Rupp treated in the context of a show on the Debt at Exit Art in 1988. —Lucy R. Lippard, "Christy Rupp: Natural History Meets Coney Island and the Sandinistas," Natural Selection: Sculpture by Christy Rupp. (Buffalo, NY: Burchfield Art Center, 1990): [11].

“Both of these works [Export Crop—Sugar Cane in a Convertible and Export Crop—Cotton Skiing] are from the series, Convalescing Staple Crops & Recreational Export Crops that commented on the plight of American farmers who struggled financially during the 1980s. Many lost their small family farms through foreclosure to corporate enterprises as a result of inflation, conflicting government policies and subsidies, exports favored over domestic markets, and other factors.” —Nancy Weekly (3-D Wit, The Charles Cary Rumsey Gallery, July 8, 2011 – January 29, 2012)