Hungry Thoughts

In my new work Hungry Thoughts, I explore the relationship to eating and my body. This work is based on my own lived experience, having had to work through disordered eating. Reforming and rewiring how I think and feel about food and being in my body, coming to a place of acceptance within myself.

I believe our basis for how we choose to eat and think about food begins at an early age, influences such as our parents, friends and society help mould our choices. What is said or not said at the dinner table, the comments with double meaning and many others influence how we form our relationship with food and our bodies, which ultimately affects how we eat. I interpret these beliefs, memories, and sensations to be in liminal spaces, where reality does not exist, with colour, light and the lack of light, creating windows into the self; each piece is a portal into this universe.

The presence of the fork in the paintings is a symbol for eating, nourishment, connection over shared meals and the weight of the challenges that can be faced surrounding the influences of eating. In some pieces the fork has been bent, speaking to the inner battle of choosing to manipulate how I would eat and think about food. Thread plays a central role in my work, symbolizing a fascia-like network — an invisible yet essential structure within the body that I interpret as a holder of memory and emotion. Stitching the utensils into the fabric of the canvas brings physicality to what is intangible to the eye, illuminating the spaces within where these feelings are being held. I use colour contrasts that speak to the contrasting points of view that society is made up of. The use of pattern and the uneasy colour relationships vibrate to communicate the tension I felt wanting to reject my body, while also trying to control the narrative around what I would eat.

Eating and living in our bodies is a shared experience we can all relate to, fundamentally we will all experience it differently based on our own lived experiences. We all share in the complexities of determining how to live in harmony with the choices we make, the influences we have received and have on others when it comes to food and how we see our bodies. I invite the viewer to go within to connect to your own personal viewpoints, and memories connecting you to your relationship with food, eating and the body that has been affected by those choices, mentally and physically without judgement.