Painted welded steel, 82 x 41 x 35, 2003.
A bowl with a spoon laid across its rim, a tall carafe and a wrapped package stand on a cloth in front of a window frame. Behind the frame a large ring rises above everything else in the composition and reads as the sun coming up. The ring is the largest and thinnest form in the piece, and it’s empty in the middle: a disc of light drawn as an outline, hanging over a table set for the day.
The title leaves open which of the two is the early riser. The sun is already up in the window, and whoever comes to the bowl has been up for it. The table sits between them, with a window to look out of and a spoon to start with.
The cloth hangs down over the edge of the support, and the arrangement sits on a block raised on two stepped tiers. At nearly seven feet tall, the still life is enlarged past table scale and given a base. A plain breakfast is displayed with the formality of a monument. Its subject is the ordinary start of a day.
