May 28, 2014

"An Artist Explores the Complicated Relationship Between Women and Food."

"In a series that has taken over seven years to produce, [Lee] Price features herself as the subject (with the exception of two images, one with her mother, one with a friend) gorging on bags of Cheetos, boxes of sweets, and pints of ice cream in very solitary, almost obscure locations including one’s bed or bathroom (think Lena Dunham eating a cupcake in the bathtub a la Girls season two). Unlike Dunham’s performance, however, Price’s paintings are neither derived from nor aimed at producing humor. They’re based on very real eating disorders (which Price herself has suffered from in the past), and explore the obsession—and sometimes compulsive relationship—many women have with food."

Self-portraits displaying the artist's mental problems, you know, like Van Gogh with his bandaged ear...



... if Van Gogh had included the severed ear in the painting.

17 comments:

Lyssa said...

What's being explored here? What's the complexity? I mean, what are we supposed to learn about this subject from this work, what does it say to us?

Lyssa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ignorance is Bliss said...

Man, I had been hoping for one of those eating-sushi-off-a-naked-lady things.

Now that there would have been art.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Sure. But when I took a bunch of photos of me whacking off they called it porn.

Illuninati said...

Women and men are different physiologically. The artist Lee Price looks average not obese. So why is she obsessing about food? Why do other women obsess about food even though women's bodies have traditionally contained more fat than men?

Our society is very interesting. When the medical establishment makes recommendations for men's health, it is usually the women who follow the recommendations to the extreme even though they don't need to. On average, it is men who have more heart attacks in middle age and who need to a rigorous diet, weight reduction and exercise program to remain healthy. It is the women who actually do those things. It is almost like the women are the men's proxy for healthful living.

George M. Spencer said...

Van Gogh did paint a picture of himself holding his ear. It's here.

Also, a banana.

Henry said...

...you know, like Van Gogh with his bandaged ear... ...or Goya and his Saturn complex.

Wince said...

You'd have to be pretty sick in the head to scatter McDonalds french fries all over your expensive 500 thread-count percales for no apparent reason.

rhhardin said...

It calls for a school lunch program.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

An artist for the women-with-eating-disorders community?

traditionalguy said...

War on Food, Day One: Feminists declare a Day of Female Fasting and Whining; but meanwhile hard up men attempt seduction of women with invitations to eat out at The Cheesecake Factory or local Malaysian restaurant.

Women stressed out making a decision, and blame...?

Smilin' Jack said...

""An Artist Explores the Complicated Relationship Between Women and Food.""

There are too many fat chicks and they need to go away. What's so complicated about it?

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see an article on an artist exploring "the complicated relationship between men and alcohol" and have a guy on the couch in front of the Wii or the flat screen surrounded by a ring of empties. :)

SGT Ted said...

I bet the eating habits that are somewhat dysfunctional today are artifact of evolutionary success.

Being the gatherers, women would graze as they worked. They would burn it off too, being exposed to the elements and walking everywhere while they worked. The men most likely ate separate meals more often, to have the focus and hands free to hunt game.

David said...

For thousands of years life for women was even more difficult than life for men. Men did subjugate them. Childbirth was dangerous. Their lesser size and strength was a constant danger to them. As society developed their political rights and overall power trailed that of men significantly. Food was a regular problem, but mostly because of its scarcity not overabundance.

But in our modern American society, women are the legal equals of men, childbirth is completely within their own control, the disadvantages of lesser size and strength have nearly disappeared and in significant ways women have legal and cultural advantages over men. This is especially true of affluent and well educated women, who exist in vast numbers in our society.

The result is that in large numbers these advantaged women are dissatisfied and feel oppressed. Some of them eat compulsively as a result and blame men or "society" for some body message they are apparently too weak minded to resist. They have choices and advantages that in past history have been available only to a few humans, and in the present are available predominantly to people of their nationality and social classes.

Therefore they are angry, militant, unhappy foot soldiers in a war where the enemy is a vast powerful combination of men, unenlightened females, senseless cultural traditions and deep prejudices. Even the donut is part of the oppressive mass weighing them down.

Poor things.

Kirk Parker said...

Ignorance,

Tampopo? :-)

Kirk Parker said...

SOJO,

Yeah, OK, but somehow I'm missing the 'complicated' part of the picture you paint.