Hansel and Gretel: Consumed

About a month ago, Andrea Zampitella and I decided to create an installation for the event "Hansel and Gretel: ReImagined" put on by our close friend and VJ artist Zebbler. Our connection to Boston’s electronic music and VJ scene opened our imaginations up to the idea of using live video projection in our own artwork. Andrea is a multimedia artist who is very talented in the areas of sculpture and conceptual art, and I have experience in the areas of animation and documentary storytelling. So with our powers combined we created this cut paper sculpture that comes to life when mapped video/animation feed is projected onto it with sound. Check out this documentation of the finished product (keeping in mind that it was much better in real life with sound and without horrible blogger compression).

We learned a lot while creating this piece, and there are many more possibilities that we haven’t yet explored. For example, we’d like to take this video sculpture technique and use it to tell a more complex story. We think it would be really interesting to have a gallery show where you can walk around the room and experience parts of a story with each sculpture/installation.

Artist Statement - Hansel and Gretel : Consumed

“Our kids don't choose to make food products with tons of sugar and sodium in super-sized portions, and then to have those products marketed to them everywhere they turn.” Michelle Obama, “Let’s Move” Campaign February 2010
Hansel and Gretel: Consumed combines the traditional Grimm’s fairy tale Hansel and Gretel with a modern day commentary on childhood consumerism. In the US, research from the American Psychological Association (APA) shows that children under the age of eight as unable to critically comphrehend televised advertising messages and are prone to accept advertiser messages as truthful, accurate and unbiased. This can lead to unhealthy eating habits as evidenced by today’s youth obesity epidemic. The Journal of the American Medical Association has said that children between the ages of two and seventeen watch an annual average of 15,000 to 18,000 hours of television, compared with 12,000 hours spent per year in school.