Desire has often been conceived in terms of a lack. The work Sugar: Things I Can’t Eat explores a desire emerging from a restriction from certain types of food. Due to the fact that I was forbidden by my doctor from consuming certain types of food, I began to more strongly crave sugar due to its sudden removal from my diet.
Both sugar and candy embodies the idea of desire, and is a desired substance. The sweet, brightly coloured substance plays on all of our sense, enticing the viewer to want to eat and to touch. The work by Tanya Schultz and Nicole Andrijevic inspired the need to include a colourful and wondrous element in my own work, bringing with it the enticement that candy holds.
The work by Felix Gonzalez-Torres holds a similar sense of desire created in my own work. Torres’ work represents the excitement of receiving candy, to then afterward realise what the candy represents. In Torres’ case, the work represented the body of his dead boyfriend as he was dying from AIDs. As inspiration, I began to collect my own wrappers which stood as an illustration of the amount sugar consumed, as well as the guilt, pain and unease that came with its consumption.
I began to look at the candy itself, and explore how it could be warped and moulded. Inspiration was drawn from Julia Chiang and Jonas Etter, whose examples of melting candy which led me to melt my own in the microwave. Extending on this, I began to mould and shape the candy, and allowing it to cool and harden to create different structures. I then attempted to shape it in to something I was able to a desirable object that I was able to use. I shaped it in to a necklace.
Making my own candy would give me the opportunity to colour the candy and further explore work of Schultz and Andrijevic and their use of colour in creating an innocent and colourful atmosphere. I also drew from the work of Lygia Clark and created whispy net-like structures from the syrupy-sugar mix, however I found that the creation of my own candy was not enough to embody my desire for these substances.
I wanted to include more of my body in the work, and Clark’s work brings in the element of the body as an important part of the work, making the object and the subject one element. I decided to explore this concept of mixing my own identity with the desire for candy by placing the desired object in front of my face and on my mouth, the point at which the desire is consumed. I then began to wrap the candy around my head, looking to bring in concept of the person having the desires and craving them so much that it consumed them.
This led to thoughts about fairy floss and its delicate yet seductive appearance, similar to the way it was used in Erno-Erik Raitanen’s work. Raitanen creates a fun and alluring wall of cotton candy which is open for guests to consume. The work only lasts for a few hours, before disintegrating into large globs of red sugar, reminiscent of blood hanging off barbed wire.
The final work Sugar: Things I Can’t Eat embodies the colourful and tempting nature of desire, with the smell of cotton candy wafting through the air. The placement of the figure in the work brings about a personal element of desiring an object that cannot be consumed. The fairy floss is wrapped around my own head, making apparent the personal struggle with the inability to consume such desires. This longing for sugar is emphasised through the time taken to sit and wait for the candy to being to shrink away. The deterioration of the candy over time emphasises the yearning to, yet restriction from consuming the fairy floss. The three different fairy floss colours add to the alluring nature of desire, yet also bring about an element of innocence while simultaneously inducing a seductive quality. The multiple shots of each colour also plays on the configuration of a food diary and its maintenance. This work depicts a sense of desire that is created through its restriction from consumption. The work lays bare my desire to consume this sugar for all to see.
Pip and Pop by Tanya Schultz and Nicole Andrijevic
http://museperk.com/artist-uses-thousands-of-candies-to-turn-rooms-into-sweet-wonderlands/?relatedposts_exclude=120376
Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)
http://www.urbansplatter.com/2013/11/untitled-portrait-ross-l-a-felix-gonzalez-torres/
Lygia Clark Baba Antropofágica (Cannibalistic Drool), 1973
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/baba-antropofagica/
http://www.designboom.com/art/julia-chiang-ring-pop-art/
Erno-Erik Raitanen Cotton Candy Works
http://collabcubed.com/2013/02/20/cotton-candy-works-erno-erik-raitanen/
http://beautifuldecay.com/2013/08/16/six-artists-transform-sugar-into-art/
Jonas Etter – Burnt Sugar
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/jonas-etter
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