The fetishisation of food has become a hugely important aspect of my recent work. The playful and flirtatious nature of eating on camera for an audience to document the sexual reactions has developed from paintings of a sexual emoji fruit machine into a grotesque representation of the female body as an object to be consumed. These have been heavily inspired by ORLAN’s body modifications, where I have challenged the use of fruit emojis as representations of the female body, such as cherries and peaches, and created a series of images documenting my grotesque transformation into these specific fruits.
These are shown through films and photographs of me using my own body for these failing transformations. I have used clay and fruit to make cherry breasts and peachy bums, and used the left-overs of these performances as pieces in their own right. These pieces will perhaps be displayed as objects to project my images and/or films onto them when I choose to display them. My work shines a light on the new era of impossible body ideals, where online dating has developed its own sexual language through imagery rather than words, and questions why exactly is it predominantly aimed at women’s bodies.
saratrouble 