EAT ME!

(in progress)

I will be making a sculptural installation made out of clay and edible food. This project plays with both the fictional and real world by deceiving expectations of what is possible in either realm. I plan on making four casserole dishes and each will be made out of different ovenware-safe clay body types– all visually different from each other. I will use the same glazes on each pot but the rendition of color will vary due to the different clay body types.

These dishes once stacked upon each other will form the shape of a fictional creature: one of my uwu characters the size of a small child. This sculpture tricks the eye by taking on two different personas: a set of practical casseroles and a lifelike solid 3D fictional character.

I will additionally make both ceramic and edible cookies that will mimic each other in visual appearance. Both types of cookies will be baked in these same ceramic casseroles. Once cooked in either an oven or a kiln, these cookies will be decorated and then packaged in the same transparent plastic bags with labels using the same font. They will then be served together on trays next to the large ceramic character.

The similarity in visual appearance of food and ceramic sculpture subverts expectations of what can and cannot be real whether that is consumption, baking methods, or the capabilities of everyday objects and mediums. The audience will choose to partake in eating these cookies, but not before testing their own beliefs.

(Will be exhibited on May 1, 2024, in Spring 2024 Senior Thesis Exhibition, Worth Ryder Art Gallery, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley CA)