NYP x ArtScience Museum

I was approached by NYP to come up with a series of ideas to exhibit at their show at ArtScience Muesum, which is open to the public.

I decided to do something that has never been done before: to reimagine everyday, ordinary food items that come as no stranger to us at supermarkets into something new.

The catch is to do minimal changes to the items themselves, yet with a touch of brilliant observation and imagination, transform them into something totally different. I felt that it is not very challenging to my mind if I were to take a piece of carrot and cave it into a dragon, as it can be caved into anything really.

I found myself standing at the aisles of supermarket, observing food items and what they can be with minimal changes done to them. The other challenge I had set for myself was that everything had to be edible/natural and nothing artificial would be applied for convenience. This truly forced me to experiment with things I had never used before. The problem with food is that you never know until you try and for the exhibits to be at their finest for the event, they have to be executed just the day before and kept in fridge before being transported to ArtScience Museum.

The exhibitions start deteriorating as time goes and one of the most popular questions asked was, "Is it very heartbreaking to see something I had put so much heart and soul into, to be thrown away at the end of it all?"

I guess from the artistic perspective - that is the message of what I wanted to carry across, that everything is temporary and beauty is so fleeting. And because the exhibits have such a short time span, it creates an urgency for people to visit instead of thinking they can catch the show next time!

The goldish made from mini orange capsicum was the hardest exhibit to achieve. The goal I set out to achieve was that all exhibits must look as lifelike as possible. The fins of goldish are really thin, so I had to choose a material (food) that has skin strong enough to slice and fold, and due to the fact that I wanted to apply no glue, I had to imagine how to create all fins of a goldish through the skin of a single capsicum. Just imagine all the cuts running through my head! Execution was tough too, one mistake and the "fins" would come off and I would have to start all other again. I only had one day prior to execute all the items in order to present them at their finest, so imagine the trial and errors (and pressure!) before the final event.

You can view the making of each exhibit in the videos on your left. I really hope you enjoy them!