Artist statement
My subject matter are Cakes. Layer cakes. Naked layer cakes. sweet braided cakes. Cakes that are transparent, with their innards showing on the outside, and cakes that are solid, obscuring intricate internal patterns and structures. These exist as an idea, a foodstuff, a format, a medium, as objects of desire, as stains of color and as architecture.
Inspired by the Japanese fake food art form and, I utilize my past experiences and skills as both an architect and a gastronome, to create, document and explore cakes and their replicas. They are produced in layers and are repeatedly manipulated, assembled and re assembled using various mediums such as baking, watercolor painting, photography and digital media (stop motion & gifs). Cooking and baking techniques are taken out of their context and applied as model-making techniques; polymer clay crumbs are baked in the oven, wax frosting is melted on the stovetop, a cookie cutter is used as a base mold etc.
The exploration of the cakes through analysis, preservation, restoration and reconstruction in various scales, mediums and perspectives, constantly blurs the lines between archetype & replica, food & architecture, reality & perception. The cakes, repeatedly constructed and deconstructed, act as self-portraits and raise issues of sexuality, sensuality and livelihood, victimization and empowerment, life, death & decay.
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