Consumption and Consequences: The Afterlife of Appetite
Authored by Deepti S, Mediator (CALORIE), Science Gallery Bengaluru
The CALORIE exhibition season aims to establish an understanding of history, politics, social, physical, and psychological aspects of food and consumption. The theme of Consumption and Consequences: The Afterlife of Appetite, is my interpretation of two works, one by Lea Luka Sikau and Denisa Pubalova’s stuff change and Jade Armstrong’s Forbidden Desire. Their works explore how the art of consuming, whether physically or psychologically, leaves a lasting residue on the individual and society as well.
The collaboration between Lea Luka Sikau and Denisa Pubalova’s, stuff change helps to experience the visceral and internal process of digestion into a multisensory event. The installation has vibroacoustic composition, inflated and deflated, creating a space to engage with sounds which are typically dismissed as embarrassing. The artists explore the intersection of media arts, experimental sound theater, given they work as researchers on environmental philosophy, critical post humanism, and technical infrastructure to curate sound art. The exhibit looks into the philosophy of the gut as a second brain — — there is research that says gut influences our emotions and how our body tries to communicate with us through gut.
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Jade Armstrong’sForbidden Desire critiques our consumption patterns by utilizing the nature of sugar. The exhibit has blown sugar sculptures made from glass blown sugar; each vessel captures a single breath of the artist; it acts as both a measure of time and symbol of life. Here we can see the emphasis of sugar’s dual identity, which was once a symbol of luxury and power and is now a commodity. It is also linked to ill health and vast colonial history represented by the artist’s practice drawing on neuro-aesthetics and the use of ephemeral materials.
Both the exhibits share a commitment to making invisible processes visible and audible; they operate on the principle of transformation and the lingering presence of energy that we typically ignore. In stuff change the artist focuses on the invisible acoustics of metabolism; the vibroacoustic compositions elevate embarrassing noise into a soundscape. This aligns with artist’s process-oriented focus on experimental sound theatre, which is used to destigmatize the body and argue that the internal process of digestion is a source of cognitive and emotional data. Where in Forbidden Desire the use of fragile medium to capture and materialize invisible human processes which literally contain artist’s breath within the blown sugar vessel. Sugar itself is a substance of extreme duality; it functions as a metaphor for desire. In these exhibits we can see the demonstration of the invisible process (metabolism, desire, and breathing) is converted into tangible medium that demands attention. The alignment with the philosophy of gut as the second brain suggests that digestive process is fundamental to emotional and cognitive regulation, the focus on gut’s influence aligns directly with psychology of forbidden food cravings and how the instability in sugar can lead to mood and behavioral disorders. This highlights that digestion creates a psycho-physiological consequences on individual that triggers the craving, demonstrating a shared focus on the effect of internal chemical and metabolic states on human condition and behaviors.
Despite the shared concepts, they differ significantly. stuff change is an internal and collective work of sounds, and the installation is designed to be shared as an experience that universally addresses the human condition like metabolism, aiming to synchronize one’s inner state. The soft nature of the inflatable installation suggests a constant and ongoing process. Forbidden Desire is more external and historically critical, while the sculptures’ meaning is layered with historical and colonial consequences involved in the production of sugar, it critiques the consequences of appetite, that it is not just a simple process, but an understanding of one’s condition. Blown sugar vessels are designed to be beautiful yet ephemeral and destined for decay.
The themes of both the exhibits are to understand beyond simple intake and output; it shows that consumption inevitably creates a complex, lingering effect on society and physical condition, something that the individual must continuously process.
