Silas Inoue’s artistic work is based on a special approach to prevailing notions of “Nature” versus “Man”. For him, these two concepts are inseparable. The exhibition eat & becʘ̃me is about the interdependent relationship which prevails between us humans and the foodstuffs that nature provides us with. A physical necessity which man has cultivated, and which today has become a symbolic phrase: you become what you eat. In his work with drawing, sculpture and installation, Inoue combines his analyses and observations of the world with intuitive and imaginative expressions. In the exhibition eat & becʘ̃me, Silas Inoue displays series of sculptural works with the titles Future Friture, SymbioSoup and Infrastructure, where foodstuffs are employed to create new forms of expression; for example, yoghurt is devoured by moulds in one of his works, in another a jellyfish-like figure of sugar is immersed in frying oil. The exhibition also includes drawings which, by means of a more immediate and intuitive work method, freely imagine devouring and coming into being, seen in a utopic as well as dystopic glow.
Silas Inoue describes his style as quasi-Asiatic, referencing his half-Eastern and half-Western origin.
The exhibition eat & becʘ̃me throws light on how Silas Inoue has pondered over a long time on what it means to devour; on how the survival of all organisms is premised on the devouring of other organisms, and how devouring is bound up with coming into being. The works touch on themes such as growth, decay, climate crisis, food chains, future ecologies, technologies and infrastructures.
This exhibition is funded by the Danish Arts Foundation and was previously presented, though in a slightly different form, at Huset for Kunst & Design, Holstebro.
Photo: Jonas Søgaard