Tiny Tea Cakes

Tiny Tea Cakes

(12 cm diameter acrylic mounted photos in 19 cm tall biscuit jar)

Middle age brings unwanted curves in most people. Prompted by societal expectations of women’s bodies, this interactive sculpture uses the negative to positive photographic process as a metaphor for my current conflicting relationship with sugar consumption.

Dopaminergic

Describes anything that releases dopamine.

Sugar consumption releases the pleasure chemical dopamine, causing cravings, binges and withdrawal symptoms similar to drug addiction.

Mimetic

Classical art mimesis focused on the ideal representation of the human form, rather than merely a realistic copy. Baked and styled by myself, these mimetic still lives seek to perfect reality and are meant to convey desire.

Haptic

Haptic visuality refers to the sense of touch: flipping through the biscuits, one engages in a multi sensory experience echoing the inherent compulsion of sugar addiction, where savouring just one is never enough.

Circular

Ageing and overconsumption of sugar desensitise dopamine. This leads to a vicious circle of escalating sugar ingestion conveyed by the work’s circular shape. Avoiding sugar allows dopamine levels to return to healthy levels.

Undeveloped

A negative is an undeveloped photographic image where the tones and colours are inverted. The colour negative replicas of these portraits express an undeveloped behaviour, or the restraint resulting from my current willpower in relation to sugar consumption.