Relationship with Food
2019 - 2021
During my undergraduate degree, I explored different “norms” in America’s food culture that cause issues pertaining to eating disorders or toxic relationships with food. This multifaceted subject allowed my art to explore many different avenues by presenting numerous unhealthy scenes to viewers that they can relate to. Food plays an integral part in all humans’ survival, so when it is turned into a commodity our relationships with it become muddled and unclear. This means the toxic relationship will go unnoticed and unchallenged. By displaying scenes that are often private, the viewer can analyze the behavior through the lens of their own experience and decide if they see themselves in it. Thus, my artworks indirectly posed questions to the viewer without providing the answer.
Even by homing in on people’s relationship with food, my artwork inadvertently posed questions about predatory advertising, sensory overload, access to healthy foods, eating disorders, and negative body image. All of these issues led to the main problem in America: unhealthy interactions with food. In order to get these ideas across, my compositions are generally complex with items going off of the borders to suggest the continuation of an uncontained problem. When using many brands and logos, there becomes a cacophony of color to mimic what is seen in predatory advertising. Color, shapes, and composition were all integral parts of my artistic process in order to allude to advertisements that utilize the same practice. I drew inspiration from artists such as Rebecca Rütten and Tjalf Sparnaay who allowed me to see how others use art to discuss the dynamics of food.
