Ephemera
"Just a Little Longer..."
Medium: Food Self-Portrait on Tray
Size: 42 cm x 36 cm
October 26, 2016
Exhibition Text
Karen Armenta
Just a Little Longer, 2016
Ephemera
In Just a Little Longer, the idea of ephemera is expressed in the fruit and vegetables that makes up a face: my face. The intention of my face being made out of food was to go in depth with the idea that we, as people, depend on food to survive. Something that gives us the energy to live can run out and when it does, we are the ones to suffer. The irony of life and death from food to humans is shown through this self-portrait when it becomes dis-formed as the fruits and vegetables go bad.
Just a Little Longer, 2016
Ephemera
In Just a Little Longer, the idea of ephemera is expressed in the fruit and vegetables that makes up a face: my face. The intention of my face being made out of food was to go in depth with the idea that we, as people, depend on food to survive. Something that gives us the energy to live can run out and when it does, we are the ones to suffer. The irony of life and death from food to humans is shown through this self-portrait when it becomes dis-formed as the fruits and vegetables go bad.
Artistic Inspiration
My artistic inspiration was heavily influenced by the Italian painter, Giuseppe Arcimboldo. His depiction of faces through fruits and vegetables give his art a unique style. Most of his works consist of fruits and veggies placed in many orders like still-lives and self-portraits. His style with the self portraits are similar to that of Impressionism. The variety of foods look realistic and are well-placed to create the illusion of faces for self-portraits/portraits. Both men and women are featured in his paintings and their odd appearances are thanks to the food that make up their faces.
His style greatly impacted my Ephemera piece because I wanted to use fruits and some vegetables to depict my own face. It goes well with the theme that I wanted to add to this piece, which was the irony of life and death between food and people. Fruit can also be seen as a symbol in art. Many fruits have different meanings and to summarize, fruit is a symbol of life. Each individual fruit are symbols that represent the different aspects that people have. Much like in mythology, certain fruits represent fertility, wealth, wisdom, and even good health and fortune.
Specifically, fruit has been seen as a symbol since the Biblical times. The story of Adam and Eve all started with a tree that grew fruit and their desire to feast on he forbidden fruit. The connection between fruit and people and how people need food to survive is what I wanted to show in my Ephemera piece, and I feel like my artistic inspiration, Arcimboldo, helps accentuate the theme and its message.
Process/Experimentation
I collected all of the materials I needed for my self-portrait made out of fruits. I bought cilantro, apples, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and a pear. From there, I sliced the fruits in pieces so that I could distinguish my facial features from the fruit. The base of my face was made from mushed bananas. My eyes were made from halves of a strawberry. My pupils were blueberries. My nose was made from a slice of a pear. My lips were two slices of an apple. Lastly, my eyebrows and hair were made from cilantro.
After finalizing the creation of this piece, I let it rot for a long week until the smell of it was unable to be contained. Once the smell was really bad, I threw it out. I kept track of its progress through photos. There were times where I forgot to take picture, but the piece took a while to decay so I only got to capture its good state and when it was bad going to its worse.
I experimented with how I would cut certain parts of the food and where I would place them. I wasn't sure where to put the cilantro so that it could look more like my hair and I also had trouble just making it look like me in general. I used a photo as a basic way to see where I would put everything in hopes to create the image of my face using the foods.
After finalizing the creation of this piece, I let it rot for a long week until the smell of it was unable to be contained. Once the smell was really bad, I threw it out. I kept track of its progress through photos. There were times where I forgot to take picture, but the piece took a while to decay so I only got to capture its good state and when it was bad going to its worse.
I experimented with how I would cut certain parts of the food and where I would place them. I wasn't sure where to put the cilantro so that it could look more like my hair and I also had trouble just making it look like me in general. I used a photo as a basic way to see where I would put everything in hopes to create the image of my face using the foods.
Reflection
Creating this self-portrait out of food was pretty difficult than what I had expected it to be.Food is not an easy medium to work with so naturally, I would face challenges early on. The bananas that I had bought for the base of my face were not in the best condition to use as a base. They were still very ripe and were hard to 'break down' into mush. I also found much dificulty in making the fruit go into place and make it look like my actual face. I found out the hard way that there is a limit to what you can do with the materials you have. In the end, I decided that it was okay for it to not look exactly like me because in the end, it wouldn't even look like me still, and that was the whole point in the Ephemera theme.
This piece was greatly influenced by Arcimboldo and shows the artistic inspiration. Although the mediums were completely different, both artworks share the same intention. The illusion of a face is what the food tries to create and I feel like my art did just that, even if it doesn't look as professional as I wanted this piece to turn out. If I had taken more time to actually give this piece more depth with its detail, I could've probably created and even better eye-pleasing piece with more depth in its conceptual theme. As for my theme, I feel like my piece expresses it to an extent. Yes, my piece does include the theme that all good things must come to an end, and that people will suffer once their source of energy perishes, but if it weren't for how childish my piece looks, maybe the theme wouldv'e been emmiting a more serious mood.
This piece was greatly influenced by Arcimboldo and shows the artistic inspiration. Although the mediums were completely different, both artworks share the same intention. The illusion of a face is what the food tries to create and I feel like my art did just that, even if it doesn't look as professional as I wanted this piece to turn out. If I had taken more time to actually give this piece more depth with its detail, I could've probably created and even better eye-pleasing piece with more depth in its conceptual theme. As for my theme, I feel like my piece expresses it to an extent. Yes, my piece does include the theme that all good things must come to an end, and that people will suffer once their source of energy perishes, but if it weren't for how childish my piece looks, maybe the theme wouldv'e been emmiting a more serious mood.
Connection to ACT
Identify cause and effect relationships between your inspiration and your artwork.
The illusion of fruits and vegetables making up a person's face inspired me to do the same, only with real food so that I could keep track of its progress as it decayed with time.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I wanted to showcase the relationship between food and man and how food is crucial for the survival of humans, and without it, we would suffer.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that people appreciate much of the symbolism certain foods carry and that it has been a part of many histories from different cultures ranging from literature, art, and geography.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The idea of how food can give people life and the idea that when the life of food ends, so does the life of mankind, is expressed in my Ephemera piece.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made the inference that people solely depend on food to live, when really, there are other necessities people need in order to stay alive.
The illusion of fruits and vegetables making up a person's face inspired me to do the same, only with real food so that I could keep track of its progress as it decayed with time.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I wanted to showcase the relationship between food and man and how food is crucial for the survival of humans, and without it, we would suffer.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that people appreciate much of the symbolism certain foods carry and that it has been a part of many histories from different cultures ranging from literature, art, and geography.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The idea of how food can give people life and the idea that when the life of food ends, so does the life of mankind, is expressed in my Ephemera piece.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made the inference that people solely depend on food to live, when really, there are other necessities people need in order to stay alive.
Bibliography
Meagher, Jennifer. Food and drink in European painting, 1400–1800 | essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of art history | the metropolitan museum of art. The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, 2000. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.
Posted. The connotations of fruit in art and still life paintings. 20 Aug. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.
Posted. The connotations of fruit in art and still life paintings. 20 Aug. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.