Friday, 23 December 2011

Ju Duoqi's vegetable art

Using vegetables of all shapes and sizes, Chinese artist, Ju Duoqi, recreates famous masterpieces, like The Last Supper, or Mona Lisa.

Ju Duoqi first started working with vegetables in the summer of 2006, when she spent two days peeling a few kilograms of peas, before stringing them on a wire and transforming them in a skirt, a top, a headdress and a magic wand. This was her first experience with vegetable art, and it was called Pea Beauty Pageant.

In the years that followed, Ju Duoqi spent a lot of her time going to the vegetable market, picking them up and placed them in different positions, to see which ones made them more interesting. She discovered the different colors and textures of vegetables offered a rich source of imagery. And frying, boiling, drying, pickling or letting them rot made them even more interesting. The artist realized she no longer needed models for her artworks, as the vegetables could easily be used as models and props alike.

The Chinese artist decided to restage La Liberte Guidant le Peuple, using only vegetables, and called it La Liberte Guidant les Legumes. She used rotting ketchup for blood, potatoes as soldiers and rotting vegetables as background. She went on to create the vegetable art masterpieces you see below.

Ju Duoqi hardly ever leaves her home, and when she does she rarely travels for over 15 km, so she created her vegetable art for all women who love their home. She considers it an environmental way of bringing art and life together.

cologne - "love padlocks"

....Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more....

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more." (Dr Seuss)