Rotisserie Rickshaw

The Sandhills Institute invited Edible Carnival to display the Rotisserie Rickshaw at the Fun Days Festival. Russel Bauer participated by entering the parade in the rickshaw, cooking vegetables, and offering them to the community of Rushville on Main Street.

The Rotisserie Rickshaw is a specialized propane grill and sculptural research project. It harnesses the convection of hot air to turn a turbine that drives the spit, slowly rotating vegetables as they roast. The rickshaw provides a jumping off point for complex conversations with complete strangers, as it is both an attempt to bridge the distance between people by sharing food as well as knowledge. No matter what age, any person can look at the rickshaw with a sense of wonder at the world and the laws and processes that shape it. Excess heat is dissipated through an array of Peltier modules (or thermoelectric generators) that provide electrical current to power a series of LEDs that illuminate the work. During events the Rotisserie Rickshaw roasts vegetables that are given freely to the audience while information about the systems and their functionality is shared. Made possible in part by a grant from the Fulcrum Fund, a partnership between 516 Arts and the Andy Warhol Foundation.