Eat What’s on Your Plate
Eat What’s on Your Plate #5, 2025
This piece reads, “Another world is possible.” The catalyst of change and progress is the initial belief that things could be different, that there are more possibilities in a civilized society than profit and consumption. To move the immovable sink, as written by A R Moxon, one has to start with the belief that it can be moved, impossible as it may seem.
Eat What’s on Your Plate is a series of wall plates that weaves disparate eras of art into a directive for the American audience. Drawing on the history of blue and white pottery as a symbol of luxury and consumerism by the West, the plates beckon the viewer with brash red text reminiscent of Barbara Kruger’s work. The title phrase is a play on words in several capacities, asking the audience to deal with what is at hand, while simultaneously admonishing the act of taking from others.
Eat What’s on Your Plate #4, 2025
This piece reads, “Diversity is our greatest strength.” Acknowledging the myriad of experiences and contributions of the many cultures that make up America is the start of valuing the people for their humanity. True freedom and democracy cannot thrive until we repair the damage done by the stealing of land, people, and cultures.
Eat What’s on Your Plate #1, 2025
This piece reads “Silence = Death,” which recalls a specific protest slogan coined by the Silence=Death Project, a coalition of six people working to raise awareness around the AIDS epidemic in the Reagan era. It was later adopted by the organization ACT UP, as a way to encourage people to take action to support the LGBT community and call on leaders to change policy surrounding the disease. As the current administration has cut funding for HIV prevention across the globe, it could not be more poignant.
Eat What’s on Your Plate #2, 2025
This piece reads “Complacency = Compliance,” which parallels the format of the “Silence = Death” plate. This further highlights the responsibility that every single person has to take action against a fascist regime, or contend with being a willing part of its war machine.
Eat What’s on Your Plate #3, 2025
With the text “Immigrants Make America Great!,” this piece remakes the slogan, Make America Great Again, which was also a product of the Reagan era. Many scholars assert that it has origins as a dog whistle to the Ku Klux Klan, along with other phrases such as “America First.” This platter, being the largest of all, acknowledges and ingratiates itself with the true backbone of America, immigrant communities. In dropping the last word, it also asserts that there is no past in which this country was better.