Stefanie Herr on her topographical food art

Beguiling and peculiar, Stefanie Herr’s photographic relief art depicts everyday food items. The Barcelona-based artist, originally from Germany, creates painstakingly hand-cut contours of layered card, resulting in work that comes across as paradoxically real and unreal.

Seeing familiar food rendered this way is strangely engaging, but behind the stark images lie a deep socio-political message. It is the artificial and laboured appearance that Herr wants to draw you to. “Unfortunately, today's society puts extreme emphasis on appearance,” she states, “and food is not exempt from that.”

Tackling the food industry, consumerism and the environment was the catalyst for the former architect’s food-related work; to highlight the disconnect between consumers and the source of produce in order to confront an attitude to food that is “based on desire rather than reality.”

Herr elaborates: “[We have a] perverted relationship with the natural environment. Skinned and eviscerated, filleted or portioned, neatly packaged and appropriately labelled, animals are treated as mere commodities today and are no longer considered an integral part of a unique ecosystem.”

Alcampo (2012) is Herr’s first series of food works. Named after the Spanish supermarket chain, the title emerged when the irony of the store's name struck her. It translates roughly to 'into the countryside', yet Herr found herself anywhere but a scene of nature in the environment of the shop, surrounded by processed foods and farmed meat sustained by steroids and antibiotics.

“We clearly need to be smarter and more sustainable about the way we produce our food,” she says. “However our food looks – cooking also transforms food and may render it unrecognizable – it is vital that we understand its origins and the way it is produced. The individual should regain a more active and mindful role in sourcing, selecting, cooking and eating food.” All very well, but what can the average consumer do about the food industry? “My advice: Ugly potatoes are just as edible as regular ones, or might even be the better choice!”

Posing such serious questions may not always succeed with viewers of the art though. “Most people find it rather disgusting and difficult to digest,” Herr confesses. But again, she notes the irony of the supermarket shoppers. “How is it possible,” she asks, “that the same people who show a limited ability to digest some of my food-related pieces, are able to ingest precisely those meat food products that served me as models, without experiencing the slightest feeling of uneasiness?”

More recently, Herr has been grappling the egg industry, producing a hand-crafted egg every day throughout this year: “Now that 2016 is gradually approaching its end, I feel like an emaciated, exhausted chicken!” And while 2016 hasn't exactly been a walk in the park for any of us, Herr's art reminds us that, even as chaos reigns outside, it's important to keep an eye on what we're eating.