Final Source Statement
I am interested in the parallels between the principles and practices of the American industrial food system and the embodiment of those principles and practices in the average American consumer. I am interested in both the way the food industry influences our lifestyles and consequently, how the food industry is a product of that lifestyle.
The American industrial food system is built on a basic principle of efficiency: produce the most food, at the fastest rate, by means of the cheapest labor, to net the greatest profit. This is achieved in a mechanized system of predictable, consistent, and uniform mass-production. In order to make the most profit, the system must be controlled from beginning to end - from seed to store shelf. Our food is chemically reengineered in labs, sprayed with pesticides in the fields and fed hormones in their pens. These chemicals are eventually digested by the consumer The natural nutrients and growing processes are supplemented with chemicals and an assembly line. Our meats, fruits, vegetables and grains, are processed and engineered to grow bigger, to grow faster, to look brighter, to yield more flesh, and to taste “better,” (higher in fat, salt, and sugar). They are produced to be the most sellable and to have the longest shelf-life possible. Bigger is better. More is better. Faster is better. The problem with this industrial food system is that it replaces surface for substance. It is a quick fix. It jeopardizes quality and character for speed and profit.
The average American contributes to this system as both a consumer, one who purchases the food and pumps money back into the system, and also by literally consuming the food, ingesting it into our own internal system and therefore, maintaining the Western diet and subsequent health problems. The consumer is content with supplementing well developed vitamins and nutrients with chemicals, nuance with consistency, individual character with slick surfaces, We would rather fill our bodies with pharmaceuticals than fruits, vegetables and exercise. We like this mass-produced system because we want cheap, predictable, abundant, quick and instantly gratifying solutions. The average American consumer is content with this system. They are easily satisfied by it and are in fact drawn to it. We want the quick fix.
As an artist, I am interested in the monumental sculptures of Claes Oldenburg. What intrigues me about his work is he way he reintroduces the audience to every day, mass produced objects and makes the audience confront them. They must physically walk around them or under them and consider them from a new angle. It is a physical experience that makes one question their own bodily presence. I am also interested in the work of Andy Warhol. In particular, his prints of Coca Cola bottles and Marilyn Monroe. I am affected by the duplications - the degenerative copy of a copy of a copy – and the way it loses what makes it special and significant the more it progresses. He Monroes become just another product consumed by pop culture rather than one that is enjoyed and truly appreciated. I am also interested in the still lifes of Raphael Peale, particularly Cutlet and Vegetables. Peale describes meat as being so fleshy you can touch it. As a viewer, I know exactly how the meat feels – cold and moist and bloody. His paintings look the audience right in the eye as if to say, “Hello,” as if the paintings were alive themselves.
