Lobbing Potatoes at a Gong 1969 is one of a group of works in which Rodney Graham takes a critical and ironic look at the idealism of the late 1960s. It centers on a fictitious artist whom we watch during a performance in front of an audience wearing alternative-style clothing. The film draws on an anecdote about the drummer of the rock band Pink Floyd, who threw vegetables at a gong during a long jam session. Graham re-enacted that performance and contextualized it as a ficticious Fluxus event. The earnestness with which this absurd action is carried out recalls a promise of authenticity that seems naive from today’s perspective. At the same time, the question arises whether artistic creativity is not perhaps caught in a loop of traumatic recurrence. The potatoes that actually hit the gong were used to make a limited edition vodka.