Happy MealFirst, she makes very public something we are supposed to do only in private. Not only do the paintings literally display the transgression, the birds eye view and frequent nudity exaggerates the sheer display of the indulgence. And, second, she takes something that is supposedly disgusting and shameful and presents it in a medium associated with [high] art, challenging the association of indulgence with poor character and a lack of refinement.Similarly, BUST magazine contributor Emily McCombs, writes:
One one level, her work is about compulsivity: the aerial view is meant to conjure the sensation of watching oneself engage in a compulsive behavior and being unable to stop it. That aspect seems to resonate for many - Price often hears her work referred to as "binge paintings" or "bulimia paintings." But she asserts that the images of women in repose surrounded by unrestricted portions of decadent treats can also be seen as a kind of liberation from the constant monitoring of food choices that so many engage in."In this society, there's so much pressure for women to be thin," says Price. We're not supposed to have appetites - and not just for food, but for a lot of things. We're the givers and not the consumers, and I think some of my recent paintings are about the women starting at the viewers and saying, 'I'm not going to censor my appetite.'"
Price hopes that her self-portraits will "open up a dialogue about the taboo subject of women and food." "A lot of times," she says, "I feel like people are skirting the issues, like they don't want to discuss the content. I'm surprised how few people ask me what they're about. I feel like it makes people uncomfortable." Um, yeah. Ya' think? Price continues, "But I'm painting them and I'm displaying them. I'm not really trying to hide anything. I'm putting something on the table, like, 'Here, look at this. Maybe you can relate to this.'"
Jelly Doughnuts
A friend of mine actually emailed me about Price's pieces not too long ago. "It's interesting," she said. "I'm not sure what I think about it, yet. I think it's almost so familiar, it's unnerving. I feel exposed."
"I can't decide," I responded. "You're so right about it being unnerving. I wonder what the artist would say? Is it her intention to reveal a shameful act? Or to normalize an innocuous act that only society has made shameful? There's something to her being naked around the food, I think? Like it's supposed to be unnerving, undressing, even. Like it's supposed to stay behind closed doors. Oof. Trippy."
And then just yesterday, my friend wrote back, "It's so interesting to me how she talks about it being both about compulsion and liberation. I don't see liberation when I look at these - rebellion maybe, probably because of the baggage I bring to them. I can't imagine being the woman in any of these and feeling anything close to liberated. But I suppose the exercise of staring at them and trying to imagine how I might be the girl in the bathroom surrounded by 'bad' food but not miserable is kind of liberating in itself... I'm imagining binging and not doing it for self-loathing, punishing or rebellious reasons. It's kind of weird how that is literally beyond the scope of something I can conceive of in reality. Anyway, they're so charged."
"I can't decide," I responded. "You're so right about it being unnerving. I wonder what the artist would say? Is it her intention to reveal a shameful act? Or to normalize an innocuous act that only society has made shameful? There's something to her being naked around the food, I think? Like it's supposed to be unnerving, undressing, even. Like it's supposed to stay behind closed doors. Oof. Trippy."
And then just yesterday, my friend wrote back, "It's so interesting to me how she talks about it being both about compulsion and liberation. I don't see liberation when I look at these - rebellion maybe, probably because of the baggage I bring to them. I can't imagine being the woman in any of these and feeling anything close to liberated. But I suppose the exercise of staring at them and trying to imagine how I might be the girl in the bathroom surrounded by 'bad' food but not miserable is kind of liberating in itself... I'm imagining binging and not doing it for self-loathing, punishing or rebellious reasons. It's kind of weird how that is literally beyond the scope of something I can conceive of in reality. Anyway, they're so charged."
Refuge
Blueberry Pancakes
SundayIndeed, Price's paintings are nothing if not charged. And for some reason or another, I cannot look away.
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What do you think, friends? What is your initial reaction? What happens in your body when you look at them? Is there one rendering that you find particularly interesting? Troubling? Liberating? And what about that liberation piece, anyway? Do you buy it?
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Local art historian here! Indeed, these are unnerving. But I wonder if perhaps, for the wrong reasons. Personally, I don't like them. They are very clear--the artist's public confrontation of the "shame" of private binging. But here are my problems with them: they perpetuate and promulgate the notion that most women have issues of eating this way, and that this act is shameful. But in the artist's focus and apparent "confrontation"/"peering in to a private act" the artists falls into what drives me batty about a lot of contemporary art: at the end of the day, despite its claims to confrontation and public awareness-raising, the theme and the images are incredibly narcissistic. So too, are images of masturbation, for eg. (Salvador Dali's "Great Masturbator" or the series by Andres Serrano) Indeed, its the narcissicism here that turns me off. But yet I prefer Serrano and Dali to this--perhaps because sexual urges that have been socially shamed seem somehow more universal--and are therefore differentiated from these images. That is not to discount the real and significant distress and pain women and men who struggle with food shame face. Certainly disordered eating is both a private and public issue in 21st c. America--but has "normal" eating become marginalized? Are those who maintain a healthy weight by balancing a nutritious diet with exercise made to feel guilty for NOT being obsessive about thinness or for NOT being part of a fat rights group? Perhaps I speak from a new privilege, akin to white privilege-- that my asking these questions announces my privilege NOT to be ashamed by these images.
ReplyDeleteI see bondage and addiction, because these photos represent binging for me which ultimately ends up in purging. I would feel differently if they were photos of woman in more public and civilized displays of indulgence...and yet that would entirely miss the point.
ReplyDeleteThese images represent the extremes women are driven too due to the obsession with dieting.
I would be interested what a similar image of a normal-weight man in a bathroom surrounded by a binge would be like.
I am moved, whatever mixed emotions I feel and she is a genius.
I felt guilty and ashamed looking at these - as if it were my own indiscretions with food that had been exposed to the world. The images are haunting, the moments they capture terrifying (to me). I don't know how these could be considered liberating, though I speak this from the perspective of someone caught up in her own eating disorder (and desperately trying to break free).
ReplyDeleteAt the very least, it's beginning conversations like these about the topic of women and food - which is definitely taboo in this society.