Artist Marco Ugolini’s  and collaborator Pedro Motta “Per Color” series in features groceries that the artist has arranged by color in an attempt to subvert the “supermarket space as a space of manipulation”. I’m not entirely sure I buy it, but they do make for some rather startling photographs.



I actually started this post about an hour ago, and then came back to it because I was slightly irked and couldn’t figure out why. And then it came to me. Ugolini has a note regarding “Per Color” that states: “none of the products were purchased after being photographed”. This might be me reading more into the work than intended or jumping to conclusions from years of working in the service industry and having to deal with years of bad patron-service*, but I’m hoping that Ugolini put everything back in its proper place rather than leaving it with nearest the bagger or checkout girl or god forbid in the middle of the aisle. I’ve spent over five years in retail **cleaning up other people’s messes, and nothing really gets under my skin like someone who can’t be assed to put things where they belong. If you’re smart enough to find out, you’re smart enough to put it back. I’m hoping Ugolini did the right thing.

But enough about that. How about a palette cleanser?:

If you could eat food in only one color, what would it be? And why?

There. Feel better?

Ugolini is currently on view at Food for Thought: A Group Exhibition at Robert Man gallery in New York from March 31st – May 14th. To view more of his work visit his website here.

Might be just me, but does this remind you of Sophie Calle’s Chromatic Diet?

* The opposite of customer-service. Usually the behavior of self-entitled, privileged consumers who treat their waiters, servers, clerks, etc. without any respect or common courtesy.
** Don’t even get me started on the food industry either.

photography

,

May 3, 2011

2 Comments