The Signification of Ketchup in David Stafford's "Six Fries with Ketchup" (Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA)

Mail-art by IUOMA member David Stafford (Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA)

June 4, 2013 - I am deeply moved to have received the original "Six Fries with Ketchup" from David Stafford; it is a work that is very special to me. Knowing this, David included a handsome commemorative statement on the reverse side of the work recognizing my correspondence piece that has become more widely known as "The Signification of Ketchup in David Stafford's 'Six Fries with Ketchup.''

I simply could not have written the piece without David's willingness to share his insights about this work from his somewhat confused post-realist stage.  In the end, I believe I have made a substantial contribution to Staffordshire studies and include the ArtForum version for you here. I am very proud:

The Signification of Ketchup

According to Lacan, when the woman in David Stafford's 'Six Fries with Ketchup' stumbles upon French fries (see Mirror), she is suddenly bombarded with an image of herself as fast food – whereas she previously experienced existence as a fragmented entity with libidinal needs. 'Six Fries with Ketchup' itself in the mirror is described by Lacan as the 'Ideal-Lunch. (Lacan, Mirror, 2). This ego ideal presented by David Stafford, for Lacan, provides an image of lunch which constitutes the absent burger and shake. The flavour of the shake is indeterminate. As in Freud, this is formed through an external force; in this case, the sudden eruption of the ketchup that counteracts the woman's primordial sense of her fragmented body.

This jubilant assumption of his specular image by the woman at the infans stage, still sunk in his motor incapacity and nursling dependent, would seem to exhibit in an exemplary situation the symbolic matrix in which the lunch is precipitated in a primordial form (ketchup), before it is objectified in the dialectic of identification with the other, and before David Stafford restores to it, in the universal its function as lunch and concern with weight loss that might compel the woman to ask: 'How do I look in these socks?" The play on 'ketchup' and 'catch up' is a floating signifier (Lacan, Mirror, 2).

This image in "Six Fries with Ketchup" is the image of coherence – of what makes the world and our place as complete subjects in it make sense. It becomes a process of identification of internal self with that external image. The mirror stage thus represents the woman’s first encounter with ketchup, with semolina, with an external sense of coherence, and with a sense of "I" and "I don't know." It also plays a key function in the interpellation of subjectivity within theories of Althusserian ideology – through the various Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA’s) which provide culturally specific images of lunch.

"Six Fries with Ketchup" came in a spectacular envelope:

And the reverse side:

Deepest thanks to David Stafford for the FAB mail-art!

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Comment by DKeys on June 5, 2013 at 4:49pm

David, I think the fog you will soon be coming out of is no doubt due to the influence of the thought police. They found you had a dangerous mind since the third grade when you beat out that sixth grader, "F-A-S-C-I-S-T...fascist"  I think sealed your name of 'the list' was the speech you gave afterwards about politics in education. The doodles kept getting more and more intricate and inflammatory.  When you refused to write "I will not think for myself" ten times on the blackboard, you went on the radar.

Comment by David Stafford on June 5, 2013 at 4:26pm

Jesus, it's tough being a legend. I feel like I should die so people can get on with the mythologizing. I hate standing in the way of my own greatness. Diane, would you mind shifting those early drawings to a safe deposit box in the Caymans. I'd hate to lose track of them if a flood should hit Elgin. DVS, what can I say? If a man had the chance to choose his Boswell, I can think of none finer. This may be a good moment to talk about the new video which has hit the brick wall of my own incompetence when it comes to imovie...Over and above the technical difficulties the damn thing just wasn't that funny. Let's face it: without the sock I'm nothing. I haven't given up but these twin obstacles have forced me to rethink everything starting with my place with the mail art firmament. Needless to say, this will take some time to unravel but Patti is gone for the weekend so I'll have plenty of time for navel-gazing. Finally, this blog and its subsequent commentaries are a testimony to the greatness of our educational system. Never have so many thought so many great thoughts about ...(here his voice trailed off and was gradually replaced by soft undulant waves of white noise. A person squinting might have discerned an arm extended skyward from the fog).

Comment by DKeys on June 5, 2013 at 4:12pm

footnote:  notice the evolution of David's stick figures. They become more complex and bearded, set in different static environments around the age of 16

Comment by DKeys on June 5, 2013 at 4:11pm

Sneak Peek of David's Doodles--retrieved from a secret diary buried near Taco Cabana. This was David's bright and chipper period before 'the rude awakening' happened and he realized life is a game with high stakes.

DVS--I'll leave the interp to you. I think a Jungian approach would be best.

Comment by De Villo Sloan on June 5, 2013 at 2:42pm

Let me make my position absolutely clear: David Stafford is a treasure to mail-art.

Current and future generations shouldn't remember him as "that funny guy with the talking sock."

He should always be in our hearts the guy who says: "Do you want fries with that?"

Comment by De Villo Sloan on June 5, 2013 at 2:26pm

Thank you for that memory of David's brilliance, Diane. 

In terms of the upstaging of the woman by the fries, I think David's reference to Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author" is indisputable. Perhaps we should call it "Six French Fries in Search of an Artist."

A few weeks ago I was here watching IUOMA-TV like so many others. I watched a video of a man exchanging dialog with a sock puppet. "My God!," I blurted out. "That's David Stafford, once mail-art's finest satirist! Now he is reduced to 'performance art' (we all know what that means) getting pennies for advertising Fruit of the Loom.

So to engage in this revival of his work is a great privilege. 

Comment by DKeys on June 5, 2013 at 1:58pm

absurdly and ridiculously hilarious--The poor woman has been upstaged by junk food. I don't know how he does it, but David manages to be the winner of the spelling bee three times running AND the class clown.  David's first joke found scrawled in his numerous personal journals dating back to 1984,  "Why was the mail artist in mourning?" "Because it was a federal mail holiday."  His doodles are being sold in small lots at auctions worldwide. David has also saved every crossword puzzle he has ever done.  I think this piece can also be traced back to the first series of jokes David wrote about tomatoes,

"What’s the difference between knowledge and wisdom?
A. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

(Once again here, David is using humor to deliver valuable information, but in a way that does not make people resistant to learn)

And of course the side splitter:

Q: What did the papa tomato say to the baby tomato?
A: “Hurry and ketchup!”

Comment by De Villo Sloan on June 4, 2013 at 8:35pm

The pleasure is all mine, David. A masterpiece in my estimation - your work, that is.

As you so wisely ascertain, the analysis is based upon Lacan's (aka "Wolf Man's") "The Signification of the Phallus." And I do have to mention here the revocation of my MLA (Modern Language Association) membership due to the unjust accusations that I plagiarized the content of my essay.

"Six Fries with Ketchup" stands untarnished - yes, a monument to the way we think and live.

Comment by David Stafford on June 4, 2013 at 8:28pm

You're welcome, DeVillo. I knew I could count on you for a lacanic exegesis... I think this blog should be placed in the Mail Art Time Capsule. It contains so much valuable information about the way we think and live in this way too interesting time...Thank, DVS....

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