For Enough Rope, by Jo Coupe, a pile of fruit is left to rot on an ornate round table. Studded with electrodes, the fruit is generating its own electricity. The artist makes use of the phenomenon of fruity electricity. The fruit create a charge, this in turn little powers motors strapped to the table legs. Each motor has a blade that slowly cuts into the leg of the table supporting the fruit.

In another of Coupe’s works, Give and Take, roses are placed in tanks of copper solution. A current passing through the tank means the flowers are slowly electroplated. This principle – electroplating – is common in the creation of cutlery and coinage. In Give and Take copper pipes are placed in the solution with a positive charge while the roses are placed in with a negative charge. As the copper solution begins to settle on the roses they are slowly entombed in a growing accumulation of copper.

Via vvork. Photographs by Bob Aitchison.