Maisie Cousins’ debut solo exhibition explores the joy and ceremony of eating

'Dipping Sauce' is a must-see this month. 

Elephant West will launch with a solo project by West London based photographer, Maisie Cousins. Known for her bright, colourful and playful style, this newly commissioned series will explore the joy and ceremony of eating.

“Dipping Sauce” will reveal large scale, hyper-saturated macro imagery of food, plants and nostalgic objects related to eating, to create a truly immersive environment. Her work carries complex layers of messages, often placing the audience uncomfortably up-close to her work and treading a carefully balanced line between the beautiful and the disgusting.

“I’m interested in our current obsession with food in the western world,” Maisie says. “Everyone takes pictures, whether their food is delicious or naughty, horrible or bleak. I spend a lot of time on Instagram looking a people’s depressing dinners – I find something honest and funny about them. This project is an amalgamation of all the things that I find charming and funny about food.”

It’s not always clear what the elements of the images are, and Maisie uses this ambiguity to seduce the viewer, creating moments of surprise, delight and horror in equal measure. Take a sneak peek below…

‘Dipping Sauce’ will be interspersed with talks, workshops and other special events and will run from 8 November to 2 December 2018, elephant.art/west. 

Images
Maisie Cousins. Used by permission.