McMummy: artist creates mummy from McDonald’s burgers, fries

Ben Campbell has created the piece as one of many items that will be featured at an art show

As we learned from the Davies Happy Meal Project in 2010, some of McDonald's food seems to be just like King Tut and not susceptible to the rules of decomposition.

Now, artist Ben Campbell, from west Texas, has combined King Tut and McDonald's food to create a life-size mummy made from the grub.

If you're wondering why it doesn't look like burgers, fries, special sauce and a pickle, it's because he pureed $200 worth of the food, poured it into a mold and used resin to keep it stuck together.

The mummy is one item featured at an art show that has a wide variety of work created with McDonald's food.

"For the past several months I've been working on an art show to highlight the connection between ancient Egypt and modern society," said Campbell in a YouTube video.

He said ancient Egypt tried to achieve immortality through mummification and pyramids.

"Modern society is likewise obsessed with achieving a form of immortality through our own customs that include perusing celebrity status and constructing corporations," he said. "One such corporation is McDonald's and apart from being a cultural ambassador of the United States to the rest of the world, their food doesn't decay if it's left out to dry."

Campbell suggests archaeologists from the future may be digging up McDonald's burgers and they will use them as artifacts to piece together an idea of how we live.

Other pieces for the show include a hamburger that is more than a year old, food skulls and large-scale paintings. The funds from the first show will be used to buy materials and pay for moving the show to different locations. He is currently looking for galleries interested in his show.

He said in an L.A. Weekly article he chose McDonald's because it's more iconic than other chains and despite purchasing $200 worth of food for the exhibit, the artist said he doesn't eat there.

As CBC reports, he has only managed to raise $71 of his $2,500 goal for the projects.

Campbell writes on his Kickstarter page, "Currently I have two McDonald's food mummies completed and would like to make many more."

(Photo from Beneverywhere on Facebook)