Alternative Warranty
H. O. Amano Auction House LLC TM and its wholly/partially-owned subsidiaries hereafter known as the Company does not accept liability beyond the remedies set forth herein, including but not limited to any liability for items not being anything but what they are as art works. Except as expressly provided herein, the Company will not be liable for any consequential, special, indirect, or gamma ray induced naivete or gullibility, even if occasioned by a force majeure event, or for any claim by any third party such as the persons with whom the Content of this website have been shared. Site visitors and their descendants to the Fourth Generation agree that for any liability related to said Content, the Company is not liable or responsible for any amount of damages above or beyond the current market spot price of day-old dog waste, whichever is the lesser amount. Notwithstanding, anything in this agreement to the contrary is purely fake news, the remedies set forth in this Agreement shall apply even if such remedies fail their essential purpose and the world ends tomorrow.
H. O. Amano, LLC
HOA Culinary Oddities and Artifacts Division is pleased to present a meticulously curated collection of antique and vintage pizza slicers and cutters attributed to the mid/late 19th c and early 20th c. Our head curator has spent years assembling this sui generis collection of idiosyncratic culinary artifacts which is now offered to the viewing public.
Each of the exquisitely hand-crafted pizza slicing implements in this collection is accompanied by a unique provenance painstakingly compiled by our in-house research staff. Our team of expert Authenticity Investigators from the H. O. Amano Culinary Oddities and Artifacts Division have applied unparalleled effort in preparing the most truth-worthy alternative facts relevant to the assumed origin of each slicing instrument and culinary artifact we offer. Please refer to sections on Authenticity, and Alternative Warranty, below).
Certification of Authenticity
The H.O. Amano LLC warranty of authenticity does not apply to works in this collection created after 1947 or before. Accordingly, H.O. Amano LLC and subsidiaries assume no risk or responsibility for the authenticity of individual lots comprising this collection.
The Artist
Don Henley is a retired community college instructor and active artist/maker. His academic training is in anthropology and art history with over four decades of experience working with ceramics, jewelry, wood and metals.
Don has lived on four continents and draws heavily on his life experience and boundless curiosity for inspiration. His art is motivated by a love of process and finding innovative ways to use and incorporate sustainable and repurposed materials for his work.
Don has resided in Encinitas, California since 1978 and maintains a working studio at his residence.
©Copyright Notice:
All materials, images, text, associated with this collective work are protected by Untied States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior, express written permission of the owner. You may not alter or remove any copyright or other notices from copies of this content.
The Collection
The idea for the Alternative Slice Collection as a work of conceptual art emerged in late 2017, around the same time as the trend of creating selective and bias-confirming “Alternative Facts” to validate a preferred Truth started gaining traction in popular culture.
The core thesis of this collective work springs from the well-fertilized ground of inventive speculation. It blends verifiable facts with plausible assumptions shaded by nuanced absurdities that, when combined, create a bountiful crop of imaginative and conjectural probabilities.
Each piece in the collection is accompanied by an abstract of alleged origin and ownership in the form of an abbreviated auction catalog entry from the H. O. Amano Auction House LLC, a fictitious estate auction company that fronts for the artist.
While all sculptures in the collection were created to fulfill their nominal purpose (the slicing of pizza) the descriptive provenance accompanying each piece freely co-mingles (mostly) authentic events/places with (sometimes) verifiable historical and fictional characters drawn from the public domain and the artist’s imagination.
As with any Alternative Fact worthy of its truth-quotient, discreet elements of veracity and fantasy are blended with varying proportions into each story arc. It is left to onlookers to sift out what is verifiable, hypothetical, or out-and-out prevarication.
It is the viewer who must examine these Alternative Facts according to their personal scruples regarding a re-imagined view of established, fact-checked, objective reality. The interested observer is cordially invited to select a favorite slicer from the collection and create their own version of “Truthiness” to match.
All pizza cutters in this collection were fabricated by the artist using basic metal and woodworking techniques. The materials are predominantly tropical hardwoods, brass, copper, and stone gleaned from surplus and sustainable resources as well as modified and repurposed objet trouvé (found objects). Some components, such as lasers and rotary cutting blades were acquired from commercial sources and modified as required.
Each cutter can be used to slice pizza with varying levels of efficiency and functionality, some more so than others. However, they are presented here primarily for the sake of amusement, and as a cheeky test of the quality and magnitude of one's taste for alternative facts.
Individual works are not for sale however, serious offers for the entire collection will be considered.
For Inquiries contact the artist: Don Henley