What comes to your mind when you think of instant noodles? Convenience, decadence, or high cholesterol?
For our art editor Zoey Xia, it was inspiration.
When Xia was studying photography in New York, instant noodles became her go-to for a quick and cheap meal. “It is cheap, fast, and full of flavor, and provides not only immediate gratification, but is also a guilty pleasure for me.”
Art comes from life and goes beyond it. After trying almost every brand of instant noodles, Xia began to wonder “what if we tear up its ‘fancy’ packaging, how seductive would it be?”
Driven by this curiosity, Xia set about turning this instant gratification into art. She named the project “Naked,” as she would unwrap the noodles when exploring the juxtapositions between shapes and shadows. “Naked defines essential truth of any kind, implying both limitation and possibilities,” she said. “As the word refers to, this project is a playful experiment, which tends to explore visual possibilities of a plain subject through photography.”
Zoey Xia is an art editor in Caixin Global. She treats photography as an outlet of expression and is especially interested in documentary and still-life photography.
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