INGRID ZHUANG

Natural Tasting, 2015-16 (Video, 5 minutes 5 seconds)

Natural Tasting (2015-16) is a video installation, running in a loop. The concept of body is key in guiding the process of metamorphosis in the linear narrative, from fish to broccoli, then from human flesh to roasted chicken and to piglets. In this fictive biological evolution, human being is merely part of a larger system of relations, consuming as well as being consumed, abstracting yet already being abstracted. Occupying multiple flat screens of various dimensions on the wall, the visually dynamic video installation creates an absurd fantastical world surrounding the viewers. As the moving images travel from one screen to the next and compete for the viewer’s attention, they aim to create an overwhelming feeling of mediation, in which images multiply and nest within or on top of one another. There is an element of violence present, suggesting that notions of familial attachment and utopian longings are ultimately fictions produced through a variety of ongoing contradictions, aka capitalism. Making reference to contemporary American sensibility—the trending pursuit of an organic lifestyle, Natural Tasting employs visual effects of propaganda while establishing a fictional narrative pointing at issues generated by the deceptive marketing strategies and systems under conditions of permanent crisis.