Apple Globe: Edible Culture
We sometimes hear the occasional comment about how food is different between all types of cultures. Food, in truth, is unique because meals are prepared into a visual representation of culture, dependent on who is crafting the food. Culture can be analyzed and defined by unique dishes and the ways each culture imprints their own personal background or the background of their ancestors on a dish. The common link between us all being the food itself. In Kevin Van Alest's beautiful three-dimensional piece Apple Globe, this idea of culture being linked with food and supporting the claims that food has meaning behind it, is expressed through delicate craftsmanship and the surprising media he decided to use.
Choosing a common apple as the base of the piece, Van Alest has transformed this food item from an everyday snack into a work of art that speaks volumes about the saying "food is culture". When first gazing at this artistic endeavor, I noticed the artist’s use of colour and contrast as a primary starting point of the food and culture interpretation. The colour Van Alest chose is vibrant: the red is very symbolic for passion or hunger, and contrasted on a plain white background leads the primary focus to the apple as a whole. Also adding onto the pale background, the negative space created also expresses simplicity but highlights the underlying meaning of food as a unifying object in the world (shown by the delicate carving of continents on a single object).
Seeking understanding behind his piece, an artist statement Van Alest created for all his art work truly shows his goal of seeking unification and looking beyond common every-day objects: “Equally important to this work are the 'big picture' and the 'little things'-- the mundane and relatable artifacts of our daily lives, and the more mysterious notions of life and existence". His passion to create art which brings a worldly importance to commonalities has led him to create this wonderful piece of artwork, Apple Globe, which transcends boundaries and unites us all under the notion of food harboring culture throughout the world.
Choosing a common apple as the base of the piece, Van Alest has transformed this food item from an everyday snack into a work of art that speaks volumes about the saying "food is culture". When first gazing at this artistic endeavor, I noticed the artist’s use of colour and contrast as a primary starting point of the food and culture interpretation. The colour Van Alest chose is vibrant: the red is very symbolic for passion or hunger, and contrasted on a plain white background leads the primary focus to the apple as a whole. Also adding onto the pale background, the negative space created also expresses simplicity but highlights the underlying meaning of food as a unifying object in the world (shown by the delicate carving of continents on a single object).
Seeking understanding behind his piece, an artist statement Van Alest created for all his art work truly shows his goal of seeking unification and looking beyond common every-day objects: “Equally important to this work are the 'big picture' and the 'little things'-- the mundane and relatable artifacts of our daily lives, and the more mysterious notions of life and existence". His passion to create art which brings a worldly importance to commonalities has led him to create this wonderful piece of artwork, Apple Globe, which transcends boundaries and unites us all under the notion of food harboring culture throughout the world.