Here is my project for the Bring it to the table exhibition. I have had a lot of fun playing with sugar in all it's forms! See below for the outcome. Hope to see you on Sunday at the opening – spring, 126a Front Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11am-2pm.
Sugar is a food product that teeters somewhere between good and bad. Like salt, it is a product that is used by most of the world, regardless of development, infrastructure or GNP. However, its production has led to exploitation and clearing of forests to make way for planting more sugar cane in developing countries and its growth in popularity has led to the onslaught of obesity in both children and adults in developed countries. Conversely, sugar cane has also been developed as a feasible alternative energy source, making its very existence something we may depend upon more heavily in the future.
Considering the many faces that sugar takes, Natasha Chetiyawardana has explored sugar in its many forms for Spring gallery’s Bring it to the table project. Taking sugar in its original form, a pen was whittled from a piece of sugar cane, ready to chew on in that moment of thought and contemplation, hopefully there to provoke thought itself. Secondly, a sugar bowl was made from the by-product of sugar production, bagasse, the fibre that is left when the juice is extracted from the cane. The fibers were mixed with soy resin to create a new life for a waste product that is usually just burned. The third exploration was looking at sugar in its usually-consumed form, the sugar cube. As a nod to the ships that haul sugar across rivers and over oceans, a small boat made of sugar floats momentarily on the foam seas of a cappuccino and eventually sinks. A sugar man sits on the precipice that is the edge of a cup, dipping his feet into the drink to test the waters. A little poke from a sugar-hungry finger pushes him over the edge.
Love the idea of the sugar people taking a plunge in the beverage.
Posted by: Marc @ NoRecipes | May 17, 2008 at 02:17 AM
i love the sugar men!
Posted by: luis | May 17, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Love this! Where did you find these little sugar guys and the boat? I have found hearts but that is it.
Posted by: Chez US | May 17, 2008 at 10:23 AM
I made them...
Posted by: natasha | May 17, 2008 at 10:33 AM
Hi Natasha! Those are very nice! The dark brown sugar guy sitting on the right looks afraid to be pushed to its hot beverage death! :P
(found via tastespotting)
Posted by: Ginger M | May 17, 2008 at 11:22 AM
Natasha, that is brilliant.
Posted by: sweet fine day | May 18, 2008 at 12:06 AM
nice, i like the men! just wondered what you used to mould the sugar?
Posted by: Elaine | May 18, 2008 at 07:31 AM
I carved the original form (the boat and the man) and then cast them in silicone. I then used the silicone mold to cast the sugar in. Quite laborious!
Posted by: natasha | May 18, 2008 at 09:58 AM
Hi Natasha, I write about design in an Icelandic newspaper called Fréttablaðið and I would like to write about your sugarmen. Could you email me some hi-res images of them?
Posted by: Ragnheidur Tryggvadottir | June 18, 2008 at 07:32 AM
so awesome!!! :)
Posted by: joanna goddard | December 06, 2008 at 09:34 AM