The Factory is an ongoing series that serves to critique the effects of industrial dairy farming thru a collection of contemporary still life.
Dairy farming and its industry has a long history of unsustainable practice which also highly affects our environment and climate. Dairy milk has become a commodity that has been overproduced to meet demands while ironically plenty also goes to waste. In industrial farming, cows are abused, forcefully impregnated and separated from their offspring. As an economically driven system that is extremely difficult to alter in a short period, this series is my artistic approach to raise awareness and provoke some transparency of this food issue.
The Tearoom is one of five compositions created to showcase information and data related to the production of dairy milk. It investigates the dairy milk industry by translating different specifications via the still life setting and illustrating its statistics by coloured rings. This information includes what is and how much this commodity is produced, processed, consumed and wasted. The idea behind this series is to indicate a food-related agenda we consumers are experiencing while pairing it up with a matching spatial environment. This series was shot on location at the UNESCO heritage site - The Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The location is chosen for its stunning modernistic spatial interiors and its visual connection to a mass-production venue.
The Tearoom indicates the top 5 types of food waste in the Netherlands that total amount to 589 million kg in 2019 (with bread being most wasted at 33%, dairy goods 23%, vegetables 17%, fruits 14% and potatoes at 13%).
Please note that The Tearoom is part of the series (4 of 5), The Factory.
