Did You Bake The Cake, Yourself?' 2015 by Corie Denby McGowan.
Credits to sound designers, Luke Dash and Sam John Mercer on help with the sound!
The concept for this artwork originally derived from the interest my baking had received during various Artist talks and meetings whilst on a residency. I discovered that the buns and cakes featured in my previous work ‘Domestic Ambitions’ had sparked more enthusiasm than the actual artwork itself. In fact I had been asked a few times about the buns in ‘Domestic Ambitions’ when this was a minor part of the artwork and had little effect on the overall piece. The whole concept of this piece was to underline beliefs in which Women are associated with the domestic and unprofessional. I found it rather ironic that I was being asked such questions in regard to my practice, as a female Artist creating work of a feminist nature.
The main body of my artistic research for ‘Did you bake the cake, yourself?’ focuses on the misconceptions that associate Women with the domestic lifestyle and baking. I will be taking into consideration how still-life can form an outer representation of a particular identity and how female stereotypes are presented through the media. Specifically observing how Women are treated within the fine art spectrum in relation to personal experiences as a female identified artist.
I wanted to created something with a grotesque approach so I whipped-up some scrumptious looking cakes in which actually tasted repugnant. Again playing with the delusion that all Women are great at baking.
Employing food as a fine art medium also encompasses the connotations in which viewers may identify with that particular food; these could be issues such as eating disorders. Having experienced an unhealthy relationship with food, the way food is executed in my work is seen as something quite pleasurable and indulgent. I find it rather comforting to look at food from this perspective and would like to advocate this extravagant and overly decorative, commercial and fake way in which advertisements present food for commercial consumption. Food is sexualised and shown as indulgent I want to engage the viewer within this same kind of control that used in advertising to gain the same kind of power. Adverts are made to lure people in with an aesthetic control that can make the viewer feel titillated but it sells and gives power to the film-maker.
Visually I am aiming to make something that could be considered to be overly decorative while focusing in on the sensual and overly indulgent aspects of historical still-life painting as a source of inspiration. I admire the excessive, richness of feasts in paintings in which evoke my own thoughts of consumption and greed touching upon ideas to do with consumerism and commercial advertising.