Obsessed With the Label
October 2020
Graphite
42cm X 59cm
Intent
For this piece, I packed my face inside a food tray to allude to my obsession with nutritional labels and the will to control total caloric intake due to an eating disorder. It shows how society has told me to consume food– not for fuel but rather to control my weight to be ‘beautiful.’ By packaging myself as a product that is sold, I call attention to how diet culture has made me a product of capitalism.
The protruding features of the face against the plastic wrap signify the will to escape my disordered mindset, while the plastic wrap symbolizes the barriers to recovery as the fixation on the number on the label has done irreparable damage to my perception of food.
I made the total calories 10, emphasizing society’s demand for products with a low-calorie count. It also reflects the low energy levels I had, as I restricted myself during my eating disorder.
I was keen on using graphite to create this piece because the monochromatic tones shows how this concept is reminiscent of my past relationship with food, conveying my gratitude for being able to progress from such a low point in my life. The reflection created by the shiny finish of the black graphite also allows the audience to see themselves in the piece, giving them the freedom to interpret the drawing in many ways depending on their relationship with food.
Experimentation
To produce the reference image, I used a digital camera to capture the photo.
I then edited the brightness, contrast, overlaid vignette, and decreased the saturation.
Using photoshop, I have layered this on top of an image I took of a food tray and adjusted the transparency.
Finally, I added a nutrition label that was sideways and not vertically long because it fit the composition better.
To get a smooth texture and bold color with pencils, I repeated the process of smoothing and shading. To emulate the plastic wrapping, I've used an angular eraser to depict the light caught with delicate and intricate detail. Moreover, in replicating the nutrition label, I used a 10B pencil to mark the words on the label for clarity. I also created the solid black background by rubbing the 10B pencil into the canvas while blending.
Process
