I no longer recall where I first saw Kelly Ciurej’s Artifical Sweetener series, though I remember I thought it was quirky and fun. 

It’s not as though the woman looks happy to be covered in birthday cake. Nay, the disgruntled stare of the woman confronts the viewer. I put myself into her place, and my mind thinks, “How dare you!”

The self-portrait series references childhood behaviors: tantrums and “crises” like dropped ice cream cones. Ciurej uses sugary, sticky, cloying foods with little nutritional value, whose ingestion may harm the consumer’s body. In doing so, she explores and challenges the internalized psychological and emotional landscapes of our roles within the nuclear family. 

About this specific image, Ciurej said, “The day I created this photo, I had noticed a birthday cake in the fridge of my workplace that was nearing a week old; it had only one piece of cake missing from the corner of it, while the rest of it –all white and orange frosting, chocolate cake interior– sat there waiting to rot. I took it out that summer day and set up my camera outside. When I was ready to photograph, I figured the cake would be soft, melted, and hot. But instead, it was still bitterly cold and hard. Smearing it on my face shocked the system; this act of performance and photography allowed me to experience my feelings and thoughts physically and viscerally. “

It’s worth seeking out the rest of the series on her website. 

Bravo, Kelly.

Artist Bio

Kelly Ciurej is an artist and photographer born and raised on Chicago’s Southside. She has been exhibited nationally in both group and solo shows, recently including the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Shockboxx Gallery in Los Angeles, and BOX13 Artspace in Houston, TX, among others. Ciurej received her MFA from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa in 2017 and currently resides in Honolulu, Hawai’i.

Author Bio

Diana Nicholette Jeon is an award-winning artist based in Honolulu, HI, who works primarily with lens-based media. Her work has been seen both internationally and nationally in solo and group exhibitions. Jeon holds an MFA from UMBC.