Vincent Trasov started to make drawings of Mr. Peanut in 1970. As Nancy Tousley wrote in her text Mr. Peanut Then and Now (published in “Mr. Peanut Drawings”, New Documents, Los Angeles 2017): “The ever-expanding body of work began as the pages of a palm-size flip book, for which Trasov appropriated Planters’ brand icon and directed him to perform a tap dance. This hand-drawn animation became a 16 mm film that then materialized into a giant papier-mache peanut shell, which Trasov made by hand. He modeled the face on his own and appeared in costume as “Mr. Peanut” in Halifax, New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Victoria, and Vancouver. In 1972, Mr. Peanut graced the cover of the debut issue of FILE Megazine, published by General Idea. Two years later, in a coup de théatre, again sporting the shell and Mr. Peanut’s anachronistic accoutrements, Trasov – a prominent figure in Vancouver’s Dada-inflected chapter of the International Correspondence Network – declared himself a candidate for mayor.” - Exhibition announcement for My Fifty Years In A Nutshell at ChertLüdde, Berlin, 10 October – 14 November 2020.