In Chunbo Zhang‘S Food treasure Series, cheese oozes from a patterned porcelain while grease pools around a hamburger with a ceramic-like bun. Painted in acrylic or watercolor, the delicate compositions capture the gluttony and excess of the typical American diet.
Zhang, who is based in Chicago, started the series in 2018 after moving to the US and struggling to adapt to her new environment, especially in regards to food. “It is not only essential in our daily lives, but also an entry point for foreigners to understand an unknown culture,” she tells Colossal.
The artist found American dairy products difficult to digest and popular desserts such as donuts and Oreos far too sweet. Wondering how to bridge the gap between her Chinese background and adopted home, she began painting realistic renderings of Epicurean delights, such as deep-dish pizza and Schmear-thick bagels. Except where a viewer might expect to find a glistening egg glaze or crispy crust, Zhang painted motifs from antique porcelain.
Food treasure shows many of the dishes on a larger scale, nodding to both the immense parts of the American diet and also the major impact meals have on shaping our cultural identities. Each work highlights countless tensions: hard and soft, raw and cooked, inedible and nourishing, ancient and contemporary, functional and decorative, high and low aesthetics. Reflecting Zhang’s fears, the works ask, “Are the two cultures fighting each other or can they merge?”
These types of questions are fundamental to the series and inform how Zhang chooses reference images from Chinese wares that correspond to the dish. For example, the cheeseburger is sandwiched between a motif that represents longevity and happiness, another dichotomy that considers the dinner fare unlikely to be among the recommendations of any dietitian. These patterns also reflect movement and migration as blue and white porcelain and elaborate, vibrant flowers emerged from cultural fairs dating back to the 13th century.
In 2023, Zhang began thinking about the ways in which food travels and painted an iteration of a dripping cheeseburger on remnants of a large FedEx box. The cardboard canvas references GO culture and how pre-prepared and restaurant meals are often removed from their original context and consumed.
Various works by the Food treasure Series can be seen until April 27 Maintenance and land bee Elmhurst Art Museum. Find more about Zhang’s website.
