A New Artist Tries Out An Old Idea

It is a strange, yet interesting idea that artist Julia Ziegler-Haynes had. Strange and interesting, but not at all new.

In her much talked about new project, a series of photographs that have been creating big buzz, the Brooklyn based artist recreated a number of “last meals” requested by prisoners on death-row. Definitely a concept worth chewing on a bit...

She selected the last meals of 24 subjects, depicting them with a 1970’s cafeteria-esque styling. There is a vast assortment of food displayed, ranging from French fries, to Whoppers chocolates, to a lobster tail.

Ziegler-Haynes says the purpose of this show was to urge viewers to take “a closer look at the human condition.”

When you consider these pictures within that context, they become bit sad - a person’s last dying wish served with soda pop.

James Reynolds has created a piece very similar to this entitled “Last Supper” where he displayed inmates’ last meals on orange cafeteria trays.

Similarly, a photographer, Jonathon Kambouris, came up with lastmealsproject.com where he uses a black and white photo of the inmate along with coloured pictures of their last food choices. Next to the photo are details about them, and their execution.

The artist, however, who seems to have most successfully attempted this sort of project is Henry Hargreaves. He combines the presentation of the actual food, along with some detail about the inmate. This makes the viewer really contemplate the idea of this being the last meal, which makes his art beautifully haunting.

It seems that Ziegler-Haynes is revisiting an old topic with these pieces. We’re all for reinvention of ideas, but maybe it’s time that this one got the chair. For good.

Vanessa Matyas
		About the author:
		After finishing her Masters in Communications and New Media from McMaster University this August, Vanessa Matyas jumped on a plane to California in search of some adventure.  The self proclaimed pop culture junkie was in heaven, enjoying all the sights, sounds and weather of Los Angeles. After returning to Toronto she decided to put her passion for all things entertainment to good use, which led her here to WOMAN.CA.
	Read More >>