A series of stunning oil on canvas works from Lily Hargreaves that focus on 21st century wellness culture, paralleled with the Christian tradition of fasting.
The hilariously-titled Eat Soup or Die Trying is a scathing review of our current obsession with wellness i.e. weight-loss by any means necessary. As we all make daily decisions to avoid a feared life of obesity, Hargreaves puts our souls under the microscope, detailing our rotten vanity and the misery we subject ourselves to for the sake of ‘health’.
By symbolically pairing the Christian tradition of fasting with 21st century fad diets and weight-loss culture, Hargreaves invites us to pay attention to who or what our behaviour serves, what ideas we worship, where our priorities lie.
The stigmata literally a thread that runs through our dinner table in her piece Liquid Lunch, drawing our attention to the idea of personal sacrifice: how much of our merriment and comfort will we give up to serve our self-image, or to serve our God? Who are we serving by getting the salad over the chips? By skipping dinner? Is it worth it to sacrifice our enjoyment in this life for the next one?
“Soup takes centre stage in this series, inspired by the liquified blends of fruits and vegetables integral to these turn of the century programmes. Colanders, sieves, and cheese cloths take figurative form; tomatoes are pulped and strained in bodily mimesis. Free-flowing fluids are stiffly sculpted as foods are forced into strict, consistent striations. The human form is absent in consideration of the psychological causes for disordered eating, self-violence put forward as a grounding distraction from an external in flux.”
The exhibition continues until 4th January 2025, open Thursday-Friday 5-8pm, Saturday 12-8pm and by appointment.