Kenny Pittock began collecting discarded shopping lists at 15 years old while working part-time as a trolley pusher and cleaner at a supermarket in Boronia. In among receipts, banana peels and other debris, Pittock would notice and rescue the abandoned scraps of paper, scrawled with grocery to-dos.

In the 10 years since, the 25-year-old Melbourne artist has amassed almost 10,000 shopping lists while working in supermarkets all over the city. Each one is an inadvertent, anonymous and droll self-portrait of the shopper.

JB whiskey 20-Pack Marlboro Gold. Ginger Ale.

chips ½ dozen oysters Freddo Frogs spring onions 2 bags ice

Tomatoes Red onion Happy birthday Gaytime. Bath Bombs.

In 2016 Pittock began transforming his collection of shopping lists into sculpture: exact replicas made of aluminium and meticulously painted so that, even up close, they resemble paper – creased, folded, marked, torn.

For Pittock, the lists are both mundane and historical artefacts. When he talks about their symbolism, he references a 10th century list written by Tibetan monks held by the British Library. Or a list from 1518 believed to have been written by Michelangelo.

“Shopping lists are often written extremely quickly and then disposed of just as fast … They’re all funny little anonymous poems, and they all tell their own unique little story. Each list shows us how different we are but also how we’re all kind of the same,” he says.

Recently, at the 2025 Melbourne Art Fair, attendees stood centimetres from the wall at a stall belonging to Mars Gallery. They were examining Pittock’s wafer-thin works.

When people see the lists for the first time, they naturally assume that they’re looking at pieces of paper. A fluoro yellow sticky note. Or a page ripped out of a ringed notebook. Or the back of a used envelope. The handwriting on each is so distinct, it feels like it must be the real thing. Only upon a thorough examination, or speaking to Mars founder and gallerist Andy Dinan, do people realise the pieces are clay duplicates.

“Some people get really fixated on unusual abbreviations or spelling mistakes … Some have responded to a specific kind of notepad they had growing up,” Pittock says. “Sometimes it’s the specific items on the list that people have a connection with. I like when people see themselves in the lists. One lady was convinced one of the lists was hers based on the writing and the items, and maybe it was.”

Two years ago, the NGV included Pittock’s installation, 52 Ceramic Shopping Lists, in the 2023 Melbourne Now exhibition. The gallery acquired the work.

Pittock says he’s continually drawn back to the shopping lists, and with thousands in his archive it will be an ongoing exploration. An exploration that will take place in his new studio – a building that used to be a supermarket.

The following works appeared at the Mars Gallery stall at the 2025 Melbourne Art Fair.

kennypittock.com marsgallery.com.au melbourneartfair.com.au