|
Food is an essential part of our lives.
We must eat it every day.
We are surrounded by it everywhere and no longer interact with it
as beings trying to survive, but as consumers with an infinite selection
and supply. In order to gain
and sustain our patronage, companies tempt us with bright packaging,
high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated vegetable oil and red dye #40.
These highly processed products are marketed, flavored, and
textured to be as alluring to the senses and tempting to the pallet as
possible with little regard to the adverse effects of their addictive
nature. As someone who has
struggled with food my entire life, I create devices which explore
alternative ways to get pleasure from processed foods instead of eating
them.
Born out of frustration, my machines torture junk food because it
tortures me. Inspired by the
sterile aesthetic of laboratory and hospital equipment, the brushed
steel mechanisms are juxtaposed with Pop arty wrappers and brightly
colored candy; reinforcing the calculated origins of these products and
the growing health problems they cause. While
food scientists develop foods and chemical additives that prey on
peoples’ sweet tooth, I find weakness in the food.
I test the breaking point of the foods in these devices;
companies share in this primal curiosity by pushing the health limits of
the human mind and body with food products engineered for maximum
consumption. What is it that
fuels the drive to test, torture, and destroy?
Vaguely reminiscent of medieval torture methods that tailored
punishment to crime, each device is carefully designed to exploit a
food’s specifically engineered characteristics, thereby personifying the
food. Interestingly, the
roles of tormenter and tormented sometimes blur.
This duality became disturbingly clear as I worked on each piece.
While fabricating these devices, I had to constantly replenish my
junk food supplies because I found myself eating my art (on one day in
particular an entire 2 lb box of Swedish Fish).
Everyone knows they should eat healthy, but it’s just so darn
hard. Back to statements |
||
|
|
||