Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP's)

Using the aesthetics of Vanitas still life paintings, I am challenging notions of health and wellbeing through a critique of the processes used in food production. This photographic work focuses on the subject of agricultural pesticides. Pesticides have been actively used the world over since 20th Century, they are invisible chemicals, as people aren’t always aware of the frequency at which pesticides are used. Pesticides are used in farms, sprayed on to plants and crops leaving pesticide residues on grown fruit, berries and other agricultural products. This process is usually informed by research from scientific laboratories where scientists check produce for levels of pesticide residues, however, it has been proven that pesticides are harmful to living organisms and a wider environment. To develop this project, I soaked photographic negatives in weed-killer spray. The aim of the process was to create a visual metaphor to describe how fruit and berries have been exposed to pesticides. The series of images raise concerns regarding so-called ‘natural’ production methods. Soaking the film in pesticides creates unusual colour tones. Green is usually a colour associated with health, but the acid tone of pesticides generates uncanny associations with something very unhealthy. Natural objects that usually appear in a domestic environment are no longer perceived as edible, revealing the artificiality around the notion of nature as purported by the food industry. The photographs seem to represent an appealing aesthetic, which reinforces the message.