Created for ART-POP, an exhibition exploring “the creative fusion of contemporary art and current music,” POP CORN occupies two shop windows, each 150 cm wide, located between the Reeperbahn and Hafenstraße in Hamburg. It runs during Hamburg Art Week: Crossing Currents and the Reeperbahn Festival.

In one window, unsalted, unsweetened popcorn fills the space, forming a 75 cm-high body of kernels. Sixteen small vibration motors, each attached to a single kernel, move them from behind, with movements inspired by the sounds corn makes just before popping. Eight solenoids, positioned beneath fabric-covered holes at the top of the pile, strike the membranes from below, producing the actual popping sounds and occasionally launching kernels into the air.

The popping follows the rhythm of Gershon Kingsley’s Popcorn (1969), a novelty tune that achieved global fame through Hot Butter’s 1972 synthesizer cover, one of the first hits played entirely on a synthesizer. The installation features eight variations of the song, each stretched or compressed to match the average length of a pop song from its respective decade, spanning the 1950s to the present. While the song itself remains unchanged, the surrounding elements expand or condense with its duration. Sudden pops punctuate the music, while thirty seconds of silence separate each variation. The complete cycle lasts 33:45 minutes.

In the second window, the corn remains unpopped, lying ten centimeters deep and motionless throughout the exhibition.