Sculptural Servings

For my recent birthday Jules presented me with something I had secretly wanted to possess since we had arrived in Japan…my own genuine piece of ‘plastic food’. It came in the form of a deliciously tempting fruity ice-cream sundae which looked so fresh and tempting, which is exactly what it is designed to do. I had developed this strange fascination for these colourful and totally inedible plastic pieces since we started to frequent the many restaurant areas around Osaka. It seems that almost every second eating establishment display their exotic menus using model replicas of the actual dish. They are beautifully presented to the last detail, but as we later found, often provide a somewhat enhanced version of the actual dish that comes to your table. What I particularly like about the plastic pieces are their sculptural qualities that accentuate the sheer visual splendour of food…its colour, texture, patterns and forms. The displays are pure ‘pop art’ that in a different setting could easily be accredited to artists such as Warhol and Koons. Instead they simply add to the overwhelming visual assault that hits the unsuspecting visitor to the streets of Japan. In the meanwhile my little piece sits proudly on display in our apartment, always fresh, ever so tempting, but never to be eaten.