“I love to eat – Kit Kats or cookies-and-cream ice cream. I need sugar like five times a day.” This is a quote from Kim Kardashian, owner of the biggest arse in all of Celebrityville, and the same Kim Kardashian who recently bemoaned her voluptuous figure and pledged to whip herself into shape. That sugar intake would be the perfect place to start, as it’s now becoming clear that sugar is probably a lot worse for our health, and our waistlines, than fat ever was. We’re sorry fat. Come back. All is forgiven.
It’s not so easy to escape the evil sugar though, as the food industry has become extremely adept in cramming the stuff into almost every processed food out there in lieu of ingredients we perceive to be more harmful; low-fat meals are often high in sugar instead. Wotsit All About? is James Ostrer‘s commentary on the modern affliction of sugar addiction, food production methods and body image. His grotesque figures are dripping with fondant icing, bejewelled with candy gems and oozing with corn starch, rendering a kind of primitive iconography with a horribly contemporary relevance. His creatures, often self-portraits, are built up with layers of garish gunk, and are photographed in a tortured state – grimacing, crying, bleeding and puking. Gazelli Art House in London is exhibiting Wotsit All About? during its Window Project season, and expiry date on Ostrer’s sugary treats is 11 September.
James Ostrer, EF 145.4,
archival pigment print on Diasec mount, 2014
James Ostrer, EF 135.16,
archival pigment print on Diasec mount, 2014
James Ostrer, EF 124,
archival pigment print on Diasec mount, 2014
James Ostrer, EF 117,
archival pigment print on Diasec mount, 2014
James Ostrer, EF 126.75,
archival pigment print on Diasec mount, 2014
James Ostrer, EF 113,
archival pigment print on Diasec mount, 2014
James Ostrer, EF 127.25,
archival pigment print on Diasec mount, 2014
James Ostrer, EF 133.2,
archival pigment print on Diasec mount, 2014
James Ostrer, EF 145.6,
archival pigment print on Diasec mount, 2014
