Artist statement

In today’s society, many people are extremely busy and most have no time or desire to cook. Tasteless Irony explores the contemporary context in which many people long for a fresh, homemade meal but are not motivated to cook. The work shows the guilt, self-loathing and regret that people feel. The audience is invited to consider the woman’s feelings as a battle between internal and external motivations: as much as she might want to get up and cook for herself, the effort of finding a recipe, ingredients and cleaning up is too much; internally she feels lazy, but also feels the external social pressure to be healthy and proactive. At the end of the overwhelming emotions, the woman freezes and ends up stuck in an unhealthy loop, mocked by the pizza on the screen.

Process

This artwork is inspired by Nam June Paik's screen usage and Rirkrit Tiravanija's social experiment art, and embraces Sally Mann's dull light style for a minimalistic and innocent touch. It explores leading the eye with angles, shadows, highlights, poses, and objects in a photographic take focused on people’s connection to food. The original photograph was digitally manipulated, using shadows for contrast and cooled tones to convey guilt and sadness. 

About the artist

I think people can learn a lot about art both as an artist and a audience viewer. As an artist you have freedom to create whatever you want whether people see or not. Researching, experimenting or just making it up, you are learning the process of your brain and what you are influenced by. While the audience on the other hand has an open mind set in galleries, learning about the artist finding new perspective on topics they might have not considered. It is like you are talking to another person and learning about them, what is important to them. Both artist and audience members create connections with art. I think as an artist it is good for the general public to see some artwork as it gives them a different perspective on a topic.