SITUATION #178

In their monumental video compilation Food for Being Looked At, Sam Mercer and Anna Dannemann create an uncomfortably seductive, almost obscenely hypnotic symphony of images of food. Originally comissioned by The Photographers’ Gallery for their Media Wall programme, the video unfolds through a variety of image practices and aesthetics that explore the role food plays in visual culture. Compiled from sources that range from cookbooks and magazines to blogs on food porn and shared content from social media platforms like cookery videos, Food for Being Looked At reflects on the ways photographic images can act as proxies of our desires. As the screen gets tinted in chocolate browns, meat reds and avocado greens, the project gradually uncovers the pornographic and vouyeristic aspect of visual consumption, while highlighting specific modalities and subgenres of food images that are consumed to build identities and lifestyles.