Let Them Eat Cake
|
|
|
|
|
Let Them Eat Cake
A collaborative work with Merlijn van der Hoeven
glass, glazed porcelain, epoxy, wool, PU, antique tea set, found objects, 23 krt gold leaf
flamework, glass casting, cast porcelain. pâte de verre, freeze & fuse, needle felting
photography - Hans Verduin, Inger Israel en Krista Israel
Two enlarged rats occupy a table overloaded with cakes and pastries made of porcelain and decorated with glass fruit. At first glance the scene appears absurd, almost comical: a banquet of fragile luxury and excessive sweetness. Yet the image quickly reveals a darker narrative. What traditionally symbolizes celebration and shared joy has become an exclusive feast.
Porcelain evokes refinement, status, and fragility, while the glass fruit suggests the seductive yet brittle nature of wealth. Candles placed in the cakes bring to mind ritual, celebration, and hope, but also the fleeting character of power — a flame that can disappear at any moment.
The table itself is in disarray: fallen and gnawed pastries, an overturned chair, crumbs scattered across the surface - this chaos visualizes the destructive appetite of power and unchecked consumption. Abundance is no longer shared; it is seized, devoured, and leaves disorder behind.
A subtle hierarchy unfolds. One rat sits on the ground beside the table wearing a fragile glass crown, while another stands on the tabletop wearing a glass jester’s hat. Together they embody authority and critique — power and spectacle intertwined.
The installation becomes an allegory of late-capitalist inequality, asking: who feasts, who watches, and who ultimately pays the price?
A collaborative work with Merlijn van der Hoeven
glass, glazed porcelain, epoxy, wool, PU, antique tea set, found objects, 23 krt gold leaf
flamework, glass casting, cast porcelain. pâte de verre, freeze & fuse, needle felting
photography - Hans Verduin, Inger Israel en Krista Israel
Two enlarged rats occupy a table overloaded with cakes and pastries made of porcelain and decorated with glass fruit. At first glance the scene appears absurd, almost comical: a banquet of fragile luxury and excessive sweetness. Yet the image quickly reveals a darker narrative. What traditionally symbolizes celebration and shared joy has become an exclusive feast.
Porcelain evokes refinement, status, and fragility, while the glass fruit suggests the seductive yet brittle nature of wealth. Candles placed in the cakes bring to mind ritual, celebration, and hope, but also the fleeting character of power — a flame that can disappear at any moment.
The table itself is in disarray: fallen and gnawed pastries, an overturned chair, crumbs scattered across the surface - this chaos visualizes the destructive appetite of power and unchecked consumption. Abundance is no longer shared; it is seized, devoured, and leaves disorder behind.
A subtle hierarchy unfolds. One rat sits on the ground beside the table wearing a fragile glass crown, while another stands on the tabletop wearing a glass jester’s hat. Together they embody authority and critique — power and spectacle intertwined.
The installation becomes an allegory of late-capitalist inequality, asking: who feasts, who watches, and who ultimately pays the price?