images courtesy of Paul Roberts
Artists know that a portrait can communicate much more than a likeness. Personal identity, cultural differences, illusory moments can be captured through portraits. Portraits are created in a dizzying variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video and other time-based media, even images based on individual DNA.
– Introduction to the National Portrait Gallery’s 2013 portrait competition
In what is being called the largest artwork ever made out of rice, Saeri Kiritani, a NY-based artist who originally hails from Kanazawa, has been named one of the winners of the National Portrait Gallery’s 2013 portrait competition. Titled, 100 pounds of rice, Kiritani glued together over 1 million grains of rice to create a 5-foot high portrait of herself. Even the hair is made from rice noodles.
We are what we eat, expressed Kiritani, in a statement describing her work. “I grew up in Japan, where rice was the biggest part of my diet. It still is. You could say that the cells of my body are made mostly from rice!”
Kiritani’s sculpture, along with 48 other entries, will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery for an entire year until Feb. 23, 2014.
You can check out our other food-related articles right here.
Source: Junk Culture | AsianArtBlog
March 22, 2013 at 6:22 pm
Thanks for the post. We are inD.C. right now and will try to make it to the exhibit.