Food and Dieting Series 1998-9

This series uses the proliferation of the symbolic visual vocabulary of self-improvement through dieting and exercise. It is as omnipresent and overbearing as ads for foods that are considered "guilty pleasures"; i.e. cookies, cakes and chocolate. Each painting uses this juxtaposition of these two polarities to show the id's battle with the ego: a battle between the individual's desire, the media as reflective of the societal self, and the commands that insinuate guilt, blame and self-hatred. My paintings depict this tension between repression and desire. Regurgitating imagery from the media, sometimes using the original packaging and foodstuffs, my paintings satirize our preoccupation with controlling our bodies.