Comida assassina: Drop Dead Gorgeous by Daniela Edburg

Xeretando na internet, encontrei um link do jornal The Morning News com uma entrevista de 2006 com a artista/fotógrafa Daniela Edburg, que, na época, estava expondo em uma galeria americana a exposição Drop Dead Gorgeous. Todas as fotos mostram mulheres belas e glamourosas mortas ou em vias de morrer. O curioso era a causa da morte, sempre explicitada no nome da foto e nela própria. Death by cotton candy, Death by Oreos, Death by cake e Death by shampoo são apenas alguns dos títulos dos trabalhos. Segundo a artista, a intenção era explicitar a relação de amor e ódio que mantemos com os alimentos e produtos de beleza retratados.

Uma coisa legal é que ela admite ter se inspirado em filmes para fazer as fotos. A Death by bananas, por exemplo, “faz uma referência quase direta a Os Pássaros, de Hitchcock”.

Você confere aí embaixo trechos da entrevista com a moçoila e, logo em seguida, encontra um link para a página do jornal, onde dá pra conferir algumas das fotos da exposição, e outro para o site oficial da artista.

How did you come up with the idea for this series?
I started this series in 2001 for my art school thesis. I painted back then, and I wanted to do a series of remakes of my favorite paintings. [I planned to add] a spin by adding one element [that would be] very much out of context. The first attempt was Death by Shampoo, after the Death of Marat by Louis-David. But I lacked the skill to do a neoclassical reproduction. So, I decided to do [the reproductions] with photography instead and modified my thesis subject to be about the relationship between glamour and death. The medium itself has a glamorizing effect, and through color, composition, and humor you can create the illusion that something is aesthetically pleasing when, in reality, it could be horrible or gross.

Why do food and beauty products have such a sinister effect on the women in your photographs?
I guess I am pretty compulsive. That which gives me pleasure one minute, causes guilt the next. I am surprised at how much I like the products I consume, but, if you stop for one second to think about it, it’s absurd. Yet, you can’t stop. [The work] is not a criticism it’s just an exaggeration of my own reality.

Your Drop Dead Gorgeous series reminds me of some horror films and thrillers featuring women — Carrie, the Stepford Wives, Basic Instinct, Rosemary’s Baby — have any films or scenes influenced your work?
Death by Bananas is an almost direct reference to Hitchcock’s The Birds. For Death by Cotton Candy I watched the Wizard of Oz, many times. I love the tornado scene. The first picture I did that was more referential to film than to painting or television, was Death by Gummi Bears; a girl having a picnic and from a nearby sugar anthill thousands of gummi bears stream out to devour her. Then, I did Death by Tupperware where a Japanese high school student in her uniform is being attacked by an enormous slimy tentacle from a creature that has formed in her refrigerator. In Death by Saran Wrap a girl is trying [to wrap] a small container of strawberries when two huge plastic spiders start to wrap her into a cocoon of plastic wrap. All these [photographs] come from the classic monster movies like the creature from the black lagoon, which I love.

Even though these photos are lighthearted, there’s something really transfixing. Why are we fascinated by the tragic deaths of glamorous, young, beautiful women?
I think that death is very seductive. It makes us appreciate the beauty in all that is ephemeral. I think Baudrillard said we seduce with our weakness. When are we frailer than in the moment when we are losing our lives?

Is Nutella out to get us? Does cake have a dark side? How are food and beauty products actually harmful?
There’s only your own dark side. The cake is not really to blame. It’s not really about the products, but the relationship of love and then hate that we have with them. When you look at a beautiful package of Oreos everything is new and shiny and attractive, and there is the promise of the sweetness and the pleasure, and then you go and open it and eat it and all you have are a stomachache, crumbs and garbage.

Links:
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/drop_dead_gorgeous (galeria do jornal)
http://www.magentamalibu.com (site da artista)

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Quero os bonequinhos dos personagens de Shrek que o McDonald’s está distribuindo com o McLanche Feliz! Dispenso, no entanto, aqueles lanches novos que parecem ser bem bizarros.