Arielle Tesoriero's talks cake. Tesoriero's work was recently featured in DREAM, an exhibition at The Untitled Space held from September 21st - October 3rd, in New York city. Her cake girls are a symbol of "women trapped by their own memories of the ways people perceive them". Cake helps Arielle embody this as it works as a marker of each stage of life.
Arielle Tesoriero “observed women around her, including herself, constantly being consumed by others while simultaneously consuming themselves”, this led her to evaluate the relationship between food and the body. Cake was a symbol that she felt represented this well, “Cake is made to be looked at, desired, and ultimately destroyed, much like the ways memory, fantasy, and identity are constructed and projected.” Tesoriero was able to capture this by utilizing different forms of materials such as wax, silicone, spray foam, and life casting. Tesoriero says she transformed familiar symbols of femininity into unsettling, psychologically charged forms, questioning what it means to be looked at, consumed, and reshaped by the expectations of others.
“My worst nightmare is becoming a cake”
She follows this concept and sees how it relates to identity and memories. She transforms familiar “symbols of femininity into unsettling, psychologically charged forms, questioning what it means to be looked at, consumed, and reshaped by the expectations of others.”
Tesoriero lets her subconscious guide her work, opening a path for her to explore her fears and desires, “like they’re stuck inside a dream they can’t wake up from.”
