Up fur a game?
An unusual ping pong table inspired by the recent neutering of a Cork artist’s pet cat will be in action on Leeside over the coming weeks.
Elinor O’Donovan from Cork is the latest artist to have been commissioned to make a ‘Krazy Table’ for the National Novelty Ping Pong Table Collection.
O’Donovan’s humorous table, lovingly named Got the Snip!, was made to commemorate the recent neutering of her cat and comes complete with fur-effect ping pong balls.
Seven tables including O’Donovan’s will form a live interactive installation at Crawford Art Gallery for ‘Wiff Waff is Playing at my Gaff’ as part of Cork Midsummer Festival from tomorrow, Friday.
The National Novelty Ping Pong Table Collection is the fever dream of artist and curator Davey Moor, whose alter-ego, King Ping Pong, has staged an annual artist’s table tennis tournament every year since 2012.
This will be the first time the Krazy Tables tournament comes to Cork.
The artist made Krazy Tables of the National Novelty Ping Pong Table Collection have amused and frustrated participants and spectators alike since King Ping Pong started commissioning them in 2016, describing the concept as “table tennis, with an unhinged twist”.
Gallery visitors will be free to play on the tables, which, as well as O’Donovan’s latest addition, will also include zany creations like Swiss Waff, a Swiss cheese themed table, and Monster Munch, a table which might just gobble up the ball as you play.
Live tournaments will also take place during the duration of the Cork Midsummer Festival.
Got the Snip!, the latest table to be added to the collection, is “designed to be silly and playful,” artist Elinor O’Donovan said.
“It’s light-hearted. A lot of the other artists who have made tables are sculptors and have reimagined the game of ping pong, but most of my work is 2D, so the image is painted onto the table and really the humour is in the act of playing the game and bouncing the cat balls around,” she added.
O’Donovan is a multidisciplinary artist based in Cork, and the recipient of the Jane Anne Rothwell Award for 2024.
Her practice spans film, sculpture, drawing, digital collage, and installation, and makes reference to internet memes, cartoons, and film and TV tropes.
She said being commissioned to make her ping pong table has “been amazing and hilarious”.
“What’s really funny is that as a Cork artist, exhibiting in Crawford Art Gallery is kind of the dream, but I never would have imagined that my work would be included there in ping pong table form,” she added.
The ‘Wiff Waff is Playing at my Gaff’ installation is open to the public at Crawford Art Gallery from 13 June to 7 July and is free of charge.
For more information on the collection, visit crawfordartgallery.ie.