Stephen Zerbe’s Food Collages
“Stephen Zerbe collects cookbooks, wrappers, take-out menus, supermarket flyers and single-serve food packages, turning them into deceptively simple collages that point out the beauty and absurdity of consumer culture,” writes Claudia Eve Beauchesne. Her profile and interview with Zerbe appears in Kolaj #15.
The full article appeared in Kolaj #15. To read the entire article, SUBSCRIBE to Kolaj Magazine or Get a Copy of the Issue.
“They’re all Abercrombie & Fitch catalog pages with food images on top of them. That’s calamari and that’s green pepper with, like, a ham sandwich,” said Zerbe.
By isolating certain design elements and multiplying others, Zerbe makes us pay attention to the way in which manufactured images of food can trigger memories and physical sensations. It’s almost like a Pavlovian response, or like synesthesia: one sense (sight) unlocks all of the others.
The full article appeared in Kolaj #15. To read the entire article, SUBSCRIBE to Kolaj Magazine or Get a Copy of the Issue.
Originally from Minnesota, Stephen Zerbe lives and works in New York. Since 2010, Zerbe has exhibited in group shows in New York City, Miami and at ArtHamptons 2013. See more of Stephen Zerbe’s work at www.zerbetrue.com.
Image (top):
From the “Dudes and Food” series
by Stephen Zerbe
each 12″x19″
collage
2011
Image (bottom):
Double Diner
by Stephen Zerbe
11″x14″
collage
2011