Photograph by Catherine Viox
Since the 19th century, vending machines have provided consumers with two enticing qualities: choice and convenience. While they may bring to mind high-calorie, low-quality products, a new addition to the city’s art scene looks to challenge this notion.
Late last year, ArtWorks installed an Art-O-Mat in its new Walnut Hills headquarters building. A repurposed cigarette vending machine that sells cigarette pack-sized artwork at $5 a piece, the machine’s objective is to “maintain accessible, affordable art,” says ArtWorks CEO and Artistic Director Colleen Houston.
First conceived in 1997 by Clark Whittington, the original Art-O-Mat sold Polaroids for $1 each at an art show in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Following the success of the event, Whittington expanded the concept to include 200 machines globally with more than 400 participating artists.
Photograph by Catherine Viox
The unveiling of the machine was a homecoming of sorts for ArtWorks. Having installed its first Art-O-Mat in 2004, the organization returned the machine due to a lack of space in its old headquarters. As its new Walnut Hills home offers more space, Houston saw an opportunity to bring it back.
“We realized nobody else was hosting one in Cincinnati,” she says. Designed by artist Teresa Villegas, the new machine is loosely “inspired by la lotería,” the Spanish-language card game, and features art in the form of miniature sushi boards, fruit-shaped earrings, small hand-painted blocks, and more.
One of the appeals of the Art-O-Mat, according to Houston, is the novelty of the experience. As smoking has decreased in prevalence, fewer people are familiar with the experience of buying cigarettes from a vending machine. “There’s this aesthetic experience of pulling the knob and the piece [falling out],” she says. As such, the machine pays tribute to its past life—all products are wrapped in cellophane, much like a cigarette pack would have been.
Photograph by Catherine Viox
More than just a fun gimmick to take part in, the Art-O-Mat has come to represent something bigger, says Houston. “It’s not this capitalist model.” This is reflected in the fact that the price point has stayed at $5 since the last time ArtWorks housed an Art-O-Mat. “The artists are participating out of the love of bringing joy to someone,” she says. “It’s not about artists getting rich, or, frankly, probably even making a living wage.”
According to Houston, the emphasis on buying art has proven successful. ArtWorks booked several appointments to the machine throughout the winter and will open it to the public this month. “It’s kind of like buying flowers, something that brightens your day,” Houston says. “People just love buying art.”
ArtWorks’s new headquarters is housed in the old Bolce Paint Company building, built in 1909. A large crowd is expected for its public grand opening on Saturday, April 26.
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