Growing up, every meal would entail the same phrases: “Don’t play with your food,” “There are starving children in Africa,” and “Eat your vegetables”. But it’s about time that we reclaim our right to play with our food. After all, our parents were the ones that insisted our spoons magically change into airplanes and choo-choo trains, so they should appreciate our creativity as we too make our food transform.
While we have seen some pretty stellar uses of food as a medium, Terry Border is taking it to a whole new level. His creations, which he calls “Bent Objects,” combines household items like food, utensils, or pill bottles with wire, lighting and an eye for puns that only a sculptor and photographer could have.
While any English major would love him, Border does his best not to be too pun-tastic, so as not to be inaccessible to a broader audience. Either way, he’s pretty punny.
While Border was never a play with your food kind of kid, as he believes that “someone playing with their food is right up there with them chewing with their mouth open,” he is finding that he now spends his free time doing just that.
The years Border spent as a photographer play a large role in his art; by experimenting with lighting and props, Border can create entire narratives out of a produce or household items and wire. And while he spends most of his time thinking about future scenes while walking down the produce aisle – a pastime he believes may raise a few eyebrows of the employees of his local grocery store – his ideas are never manufactured on a storyboard as he allows himself to be inspired by the objects around him.
For those individuals that have a bit more x-rated tastes, Border has a website dedicated to his art posed in compromising positions. If you have ever wondered what your food would look like while procreating, then head over to Really Bent and check it out.
And if you find yourself thinking “gosh, I would really like to leave this on my coffee table as a conversation starter” then maybe you should check out his books. That’s right, he has two.
