Triptych

East 66th St NYC 1987

​​Pictured: Campbell’s Soup Can found in Andy Warhol’s Kitchen
​
Warhol’s kitchen is one of the most iconic images taken by Gamble as part of this extraordinary series. The kitchen is a place where fragments tell the story of an artist whose inspiration truly came from the simplest, and yet so very important, objects of popular culture. Situated in the lower ground floor of his NYC home, the kitchen was where Andy ate every meal—a cosy and simple environment yet filled with the artist’s distinctive taste that made his artwork so vibrant and original. From the Fiesta dishware to the omnipresent Campbell Soup Can, the kitchen is a visual catalog of the colors, shapes, and rhythmic repetition that defined the artist’s body of work.

It is during this photoshoot that Gamble found the Can of Campbell Tomato Bisque stuck between the kitchen cupboard and the wall. It might have been accidentally knocked over by a cleaner who ignored the rolling sound and the muted thud that could have destined the tin for the garbage can. All food had been already removed from the cabinets in view of the property sale. It was after Gamble had left the house that his assistant gave the can to him. He had taken it in the knowledge that it would have been soon thrown out too and that it somehow felt like a special object in the context of Warhol’s life.

This very Campbell Soup can has been in Gamble’s possession ever since. As a consumable everyday object bearing an “August 1990” expiry date, the can has become the ultimate Warhol memento mori. Its ability to preserve food from decay has been extended further by the fetishization surrounding Warhol’s iconic persona, thus becoming a true pop-relic. Aware of its special aura, and its internal decay of the food inside. Gamble first photographed the can in 1997, ten years after Warhol’s death, and more recently, in 2017 to mark the 30th anniversary and it’s further visual demise.

Gamble’s images document the slow decaying of the object as its label fades and rust stains the naked metal parts. Day by day, this can becomes a ruin—a reminder that, despite all our efforts, eventually, everything erodes and disappears.