The artwork
#Eriko Kobayashi #meals #glass #sculpture
February 13, 2024
Kate Mothes
All photographs © Eriko Kobayashi, distributed with permission
Eriko Kobayashi's extremely lifelike sculptures of fried eggs, bacon and gummy bears are made from the very last thing you'd need to chew into. Made totally of glass, the Seattle-based artist's hyperrealistic works discover our relationship with routine mealtimes, consolation meals and the nostalgia of manufacturers like Pop Tarts.
“I believe we make selections about clothes, meals, and our day by day necessities primarily based on a way of intimacy and sympathy with the merchandise,” Kobayashi tells Colossal. Tapping into universally recognizable gadgets equivalent to the ever-present bacon and eggs breakfast menu, the artist attracts inspiration from her personal nostalgia, depicting the meals she usually has readily available. She sees glass as a medium that may each encapsulate and accumulate expertise.
Kobayashi makes use of a way referred to as scorching casting, the place particular person items are melted collectively at excessive temperatures in a hand-crafted mildew. “I'm all the time searching for a brand new refresh and attempt to make items that deepen pondering, give a constructive feeling and awaken curiosity,” she says. “The self-discipline required to convincingly create a glass object requires me to spend an extended, targeted time frame making that object.”
Working with glass requires plenty of persistence within the pursuit of precision. For instance, within the course of of creating stable, cubic items of gummy bears, Kobayashi underwent plenty of trial and error. “Incorrect melting temperatures brought about gummy bears to soften an excessive amount of, errors in mildew form brought about temperature variations, and miscalculation of annealing time resulted in cracks within the glass,” she says. “By experimentation, I ended up creating my very own molds and calculating the temperature to get the specified form.”
Kobayashi's work shall be included within the upcoming 2024 version Ripley consider it or not! and is at the moment a part of Potluck at Hashimoto Up to date in Los Angeles. And in case you're in Seattle, you possibly can see her work within the Pratt Advantageous Arts Heart's showcase in a titled presentation chewed ideas, opens this month and continues by way of June. Discover extra on the artist's web site and Instagram.
#Eriko Kobayashi #meals #glass #sculpture
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