Photography and stop-motion video, 2016

Artificial Food is a work centered on the theme of consumerism, serving as an allegory for the nourishment of the body, mind, and soul. It offers a profound reflection on the excessive overproduction of «junk» products and content that saturate our earth, our bodies, and our minds, contributing to environmental destruction. Here, the environment is understood not only in its ecological and natural dimensions, but also as a formal, political, historical, and social context.

The project acts as a medium for reflecting on the impact of consuming ephemeral and superficial realities. Artificial Food considers the influence of multiple factors in our lives, including the illusion of beauty standards, the spread of fake news, and the presence of plastics in our food and water. The work addresses broader social issues, such as the influence of fashion and the omnipresence of marketing. Through photography and video, the project offers a visual rhetoric on the challenges and complexities of living in a world saturated with manufactured and often deceptive elements.

The choice to use a Barbie doll carries a symbolic meaning in the collective unconscious, representing the superficiality and illusion of beauty standards promoted by pop culture over time. The vase, on the other hand, symbolises the working class that produces through underpaid labor and consumes low-quality material and cultural products. Lastly, the popcorn metaphor denounces the excessive spread of fake news, the imitation of stereotypes, and the repetition of alienating behaviors that contribute to the circulation of ignorance.

We are still constructing societies of slaves and subjugation.