Public Art > EXPO Milano 2015 - "CIRCLE OF LIFE"
Exhibition: Circle of Life Curated by: Gloria Porcella and Aneta Ilic - Gallery Ca' d'Oro Event organizer: Gabriella Carluchi Serbian Pavillion at Expo Milano 2015 September 7-18 Sandra Vucicevic:
ARTIST STATEMENT
Our health depends on our choice of food. Yet, it is usually when one becomes sick or overweight that one starts to truly pay attention to one’s diet. For me, that moment of insight occurred after I became pregnant with my daughter. Being aware that my eating habits directly affect my baby made me think more about the actual ingredients we consume in food products sold at the grocery store. I became obsessed with reading food labels and realized how many artificial ingredients such as food enhancers and food dyes are hidden in numerous food products. This concern became the inspiration for my series of works called “You Are What You Eat”, dedicated to raising awareness in consumers of the true content and quality of factory produced food.
In two mixed media paintings from this series: “Food Diary - Venus” and Food Diary – David,” I painted the bodies of the male and female nudes overlaid with food labels which I collected and cut out from food products my husband and I consumed in one month. In a way these pieces represent our “food diary” for this period of time, hence the title. Beside using acrylic paint, food labels and molding paste, I also worked crushed eggshells, dried plants, and grocery fishnet into the surface of the paintings to give them a third dimension and a sense of “the real”.
Similarly, in the installation “Untitled – Food Dye Color Wheel” which is the second part of the “You Are What You Eat” project, I painted a color wheel using both real food dyes and acrylic paint on canvas. This installation also includes a set of colorful cards which contain info on the artificial food colorings permitted in the EU and USA and describe possible health problems they can cause in consumers. The info cards are “served” to the audience on a food platter to convey, conceptually, the message as to “what we actually eat”, and to embrace audience participation.
Sandra Vucicevic, 2015
ARTIST STATEMENT
Our health depends on our choice of food. Yet, it is usually when one becomes sick or overweight that one starts to truly pay attention to one’s diet. For me, that moment of insight occurred after I became pregnant with my daughter. Being aware that my eating habits directly affect my baby made me think more about the actual ingredients we consume in food products sold at the grocery store. I became obsessed with reading food labels and realized how many artificial ingredients such as food enhancers and food dyes are hidden in numerous food products. This concern became the inspiration for my series of works called “You Are What You Eat”, dedicated to raising awareness in consumers of the true content and quality of factory produced food.
In two mixed media paintings from this series: “Food Diary - Venus” and Food Diary – David,” I painted the bodies of the male and female nudes overlaid with food labels which I collected and cut out from food products my husband and I consumed in one month. In a way these pieces represent our “food diary” for this period of time, hence the title. Beside using acrylic paint, food labels and molding paste, I also worked crushed eggshells, dried plants, and grocery fishnet into the surface of the paintings to give them a third dimension and a sense of “the real”.
Similarly, in the installation “Untitled – Food Dye Color Wheel” which is the second part of the “You Are What You Eat” project, I painted a color wheel using both real food dyes and acrylic paint on canvas. This installation also includes a set of colorful cards which contain info on the artificial food colorings permitted in the EU and USA and describe possible health problems they can cause in consumers. The info cards are “served” to the audience on a food platter to convey, conceptually, the message as to “what we actually eat”, and to embrace audience participation.
Sandra Vucicevic, 2015
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT: FOOD DIARY - VENUS
2015
Acrylic, food labels, eggshell, dried flowers and fishnet on canvas
24 x 48 in
2015
Acrylic, food labels, eggshell, dried flowers and fishnet on canvas
24 x 48 in
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT: FOOD DIARY - DAVID
2015
Acrylic, food labels, eggshell, and fishnet on canvas
48 x 24 in
2015
Acrylic, food labels, eggshell, and fishnet on canvas
48 x 24 in
FOOD DYE COLOR WHEEL - Audience Participatory Installation
This is an audience participatory installation which includes a color wheel painted with both food dyes and acrylic paint and set of colorful info cards which describe health effects of each food dye accepted in EU and United States. The cards are served on a food platter to remind the viewers of what we actually eat. The audience is invited to interact with the piece by taking the cards from the table.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT: FOOD DYE COLOR WHEEL
2015
Food dyes and acrylic on canvas
20 in
2015
Food dyes and acrylic on canvas
20 in
FOOD DYE COLOR WHEEL - info cards on a food platter
CIRCLE OF LIFE
Contemporary art exhibition at the Serbian Pavilion Expo Milano 2015
September 7-18
Contemporary art exhibition at the Serbian Pavilion Expo Milano 2015
September 7-18
The two artists Sandra Vucicevic and Marko Gavrilovic, chosen among the many Serbian artists from the gallery Art Ca'd'Oro, gave strong and provocative interpretation of the theme of the Expo, which invites move away from consumerism and a way of life that does not take into account the consequences of human actions on the planet and their impact on the future.
