Category: Student Presentations

Eating has never and never will be simply about satisfying physical hunger! We eat not only to quell a rumbling stomach, but also to satisfy the appetite and deal with our emotions!!

I would say that I share a pretty intimate relationship with food, for my feelings and emotions are tightly linked and affected by the food I consume. When I sit down to have my meal, I want to relish the flavours and textures hence I am very particular and picky with the food I consume. I know very well what food appeals to me and what not, and at times, these food can evoke very strong emotions in me.

When I was given the project brief, the first thing that came to mind was food as it has always been a recurring theme in most or otherwise all of my works. However, this time it involved a new approach as it was the first time I actually used actual food as my medium.

Join me as i venture into my messy relationship with food!

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Initially, I was fixed on attaching each emotion to a different food hence the idea was pretty weak and lack development as I was simply expressing what food makes me happy those which cause me displeasure. However, after sharing my idea with Joy, I had a clearer direction. I shared with her my dislike for rice and how consuming it brought me unpleasant emotions  and it was not simply sadness I felt as rice itself has led to other emotions.  Hence, it involved a progression of emotions, instead of a single emotion that was felt and sometimes the progression of these emotions were not simply evoked by the food itself but too by the context or environment I am in. For instance, guilt, on of the other emotion that is linked closely with rice, as in the Asian context, rice is an epitome of filial piety and the refusal to consume rice could be seen as unfilial or and ungrateful act.

I have decided to tag the 18 strips of emotions to 6 types of food- mushroom, raisins, pizza, ice cream, dragon fruit, rice. Each of these food bears a progression of emotions that are evoked by both the consumption of it as well as the environment which I am in. As the flow of emotions I choose to portray are very personal, they are rather subjective.

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First being MUSHROOMS.

Sentimentality -> Fondness -> Homesickness

Mushrooms remind me of my grandma, as she would always whip up her signature mushroom soup whenever I am home. As I am staying in hall now, I do not get to drink it as often and really misses her soup on some of the days. Hence, I have chosen mushroom as the material to make the marks for it brought objectifies the progression of emotions. Firstly, sentimentality as the taste of mushrooms evoke a sense of nostalgia, which led to fondness which expresses my love for both the soup and my grandma and lastly, homesickness which suggests my attachment to her as I am away from home.

 

1. SENTIMENTALITY {self-indulgent tenderness, nostalgia}

To express the feeling of sentimentality, I chose tissue paper instead of normal cartridge paper as I felt that the softness and absorbent quality of tissue could suggest the sense of fragility and idea of nostalgia. As the ink seeps into the tissue and spreads across the surface, certain parts fade out, This fading quality creates a hazy effect which could suggest sentimentality and nostalgia, as I recall and is reminded of my grandma.

I used chinese mushroom for the first strip with china ink as the medium.

(The experimental pieces are in my visual journal)

I was inspired by this

2. FONDNESS {affection, sentiment, familiarity}

I was stuck when trying to express these emotions as I restricted myself to using only chinese mushroom which limited the types of marks which I can achieve, despite varying the type of paper used. Jon suggested that I should try other kinds of mushrooms and not restrict myself to only that.

To express homesickness, I applied the chinese ink onto the paper surface with swift actions to suggest the feeling of affection which I would perceive as something that is spontaneous and dynamic.

3. HOMESICKNESS {longing during a period of absence}

For this strip i made use of vertical lines and played with the positive and negative space to convey the idea of homesickness. I felt that the vertical lines that drag down the strip could suggest the sense of longing and the repetitive negative space conveyed the idea of absence.

Was inspired by these

 

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Secondly, RAISINS.

EXCITEMENT -> CONFUSION -> HATRED

“Every box of RAISIN is a tragic tale of grapes that could have been wine” HAHAHA

Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason why I have trust issues. Wasn’t a fan of raisins to begin with but the dislike for raisin grew stronger such that I have come to hate raisins. I can still remember vividly the disappointment I felt when I bit into the “chocolate cookie” only to realise that they were wrinkly raisins instead. I was so excited to eat it but the excitement died down upon the sudden realisation that it wasn’t actually what I thought it would be leaving me in confusion which thus resulted in the hatred for raisins.

 

EXCITEMENT {anticipation, intensity}

With this strip, I played with tonal gradations to convey the idea of anticipation. I varied the tones created by the raisins dipped in the bock print ink which suggests a sense of eagerness building up.

CONFUSION {uncertainty, disorientation, indecision}

Played with space and the repetition of patterns to convey the emotion of confusion. The overlap and collision of prints suggested the a sense of disorientation and the large empty spaces conveyed a sense of vastness and uncertainty.

HATRED {intense dislike}

To convey the intensity of the the dislike I bear towards raisin, I soaked the raisins in china ink and tossed them onto the paper as I perceive hatred to bear a certain sense of violence. I made use of unorganised horizontal lines with splatter of paints made by the tossed raisins to suggest a sense of disorientation and sudden outbursts.

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Next, PIZZA.

DISGUST -> UNEASINESS -> DREAD

OMG, I can’t put into words my dislike for pizza. I’m really not a picky eater, I just dislike some food as at this point I think I may seem pretty fussy with my food but I’m really not hahaha

Pizza is like a spaghetti wannabe for it is a dry, sad piece of bread disguising itself to taste like it, by slathering the surface with an excessive amount of bloody tomato sauce only to make the bread moist and soggy, and sprinkling an obscene about of cheese on the top to cover up the disgusting taste so that all your tastebuds can detect is saltiness. Yucks.

However, it is a star at parties and celebrations and I can’t decline the offer made by my friends and have no choice but to eat it just to “show-face”. Hence, it always make me uneasy under such social circumstances as I have to mask my disgust which makes it ever more dreadful.

With this 3 strips, I played with the material of paper to convey different emotions.

DISGUST {strong disapproval, detestation}

To achieve the viscosity of pizza sauce, I recalled how I made the sauces in my food sculptures for my a level work and decided to mix chinese ink into glaze medium which was heavily employed in my work to imitate the appearance and texture of sauces. Fortunately, it turned out well as it was much easier to spread across the paper and it retained the gloss which could suggest the appearance of grease.

In this strip, I tore up the sandwich packaging to suggest the idea of take-out and fast food which is often associated to pizza. Prior to this, i splattered paint on baking paper itself and it failed to convey as sense of disgusts as it simply look like splatters of paint however, with the words like ‘Hot Bake’, ‘Delivered Fresh’, it add a different dimension to the strip for it heightens the intensity.

UNEASINESS {apprehensive, lacking sense 0f security}

For this strip, I left a piece of bread out to dry and coated the strip with white acrylic paint. Thereafter, I dipped the bread in both acrylic paint and chinese ink and dabbed it onto the strip before the white paint it was coated with was dry. With this, the tacky white surface and the dabbing motion of the bread created a rather coarse texture and the random dabbing motion too suggests a sense of unease as it appears at unexpected and random intervals. I then crushed a piece of tracing paper and layered over it as an attempt to preserve the strip as there were crumbs of bread that were unintentionally stuck among the paint. In addition, the folds and creases of the crushed tracing paper too heightens the sense of unease as it reminds me of strong gripping. Likewise, the translucent quality of paper also suggests a lack of security as people can look through me.

DREAD {worry, concern}

Felt the the motion of dragging would be the best at conveying the idea of dread. This time I did it on brown corrugated cardboard which resembles the the boxes which pizza comes in.

Again, I made use of chinese ink and glaze medium to imitate the oil stains which pizza leaves on the take-out boxes.

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Followed by, ICE CREAM.

WORRY -> RELIEF -> CONTENTMENT

Ice cream to me, is a both a form of sinful indulgence and a comfort food. It is able to MELT away my worries~ Shall keep this short and SWEET.

As ice cream is perishable and attract a ton of ants, I substituted it with paper clay mixed with a varying amount of water to imitate the texture of melting ice cream.

WORRY {troubled, anxious}

To convey the emotion of being troubled, I felt that a cloudy surface would best do so. Adopted a marbling approach by dripping ink onto the wet clay surface and swirling around. I thought that the approaching swirls suggests the sense of anxiety for they are about to collide.

RELIEF & CONTENTMENT

The grey tones gradually decreases in these 2 strips to suggest the idea of worry clearing up.

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Next we have DRAGON FRUIT.

SURPRISE -> AMAZEMENT ->PLEASURE

I really didn’t expect the flesh of dragon fruit to look like that as it kinda looks like tiny black heads hidden in wet tissue. I was expecting the inside to look just like aloe vera as the outer skin reminded me of succulent or rather a cactus plant, leaving me surprised. Amazement was a result of the texture of the flesh. The tiny seed left me in awe as it brought a strange and unexplainable feeling. Lastly, I am a really lazy person who is too lazy to chew omg i can press the flesh against my gum with my tongue and it melts the flesh down 😀 How easy to consume and pleasurable!

SURPRISE {unexpected}

Using the little protrusions soaked with chinese ink, I tossed them onto the paper randomly to suggest a sense of spontaneity and give it an unexpected quality.

AMAZEMENT {great surprise, wonder}

Using the same approach as earlier but this time I made use of the dragon fruit seed as I am amazed at the sensation the seeds bring about in m mouth. Hence, I created a firework pattern with the seeds to suggest a greater intensity of surprise.

 

PLEASURE {happy satisfaction, enjoyment}

Made use of repetition and sinuous curves to suggest the sense of pleasure. It was mentioned during the presentation by my classmate that curved lines brings a sense of calmness and i decided to depict this in the strip.

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Lastly, RICE.

DISPLEASURE -> FRUSTRATION -> GUILT

I kinda really hate rice? It tastes like little worms in my mouth and I really hate the gritty, mushy texture. However, I do not mind sushi or pearl rice drenched heavily in sauce. In general, I still dislike rice. I can’t have rice more than once a day or I will be really grouchy. Eating rice brings me displeasure. Back in secondary school when I could actually still make it home in time for lunch?! My grandma would sometimes cook porridge or rice and when I return home after a day at school all hungry (I did not study hard just to come home for rice) I would be annoyed and frustrated at the sight of rice. I would throw a tantrum and question my grandma why she still cooked rice despite knowing how much i dislike eating rice. After I cooled myself down, I begin to regret my disrespectful and rude behaviour and blame myself for my irrational behaviour and is swollen with guilt.

Adopted the mono-printing approach by pressing the rice grains under the machine.

   

Was inspired by Beili Liu’s ‘Yun Yan”

DISPLEASE {annoyance, irritation}

Tossed the rice grains randomly across the lino mat. Rolled it under the machine and managed to achieve the blotches of bold positive space against a stark, black background that I felt was able to convey the idea of annoyance due to the contrast paired with the irregular edge of the positive space.

FRUSTRATION {exasperation, bitterness, anger}

Similar approach but this time using the reverse print, I dabbed the kitchen towel with block print ink and applied pressure with it across the strip as an attempt to vent the anger.

GUILT {remorse, self-repproach}

I felt that the progressive blurring of the print was able to bring out the idea of guilt.

 

It wasn’t easy expressing 18 emotions contained within 2.4 x 31 cm strips using abstract marks but I am glad that I was able to step out of my comfort zone and did something new this time!

TRIED TO FEEL SO MANY DIFFERENT EMOTIONS OVER THE SPAN OF THESE FEW WEEKS IM NOT SURE IF I CAN FEEL ANYMORE HAHAHAHAHA

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