Morphosis
Wonders of leaving food locked in an apartment for 6 months
About
Are you fascinated by all the weird stuff just like I am?
Probably yes. This project is a fruition or I would say a consequence of events taken place in my life (and the world) during this Pandemic.
Context
As peaceful as my life was going with the usual hustle here in Milan, it was suddenly struck by the Covid pandemic.
I am Gaurang Bhatt, a Strategic Design student at Politecnico di Milano. I was supposed to leave for Antwerp, Belgium to attend a workshop for 15 days in March’20 before the pandemic, which left us in lockdown and restrictive conditions.
As soon as it started picking up fire, my roommate and I started to ration food, groceries etc. for a month, but little did we know that all of that stuff was going to be turned into an art project 6 months later.
With the hovering sense of fear among other emotions, and the simultaneous lockdown in Italy, pushed us to leave the country in a rushed manner. We found shed in one of my closest friend’s family in Prague, who were generous enough to let us stay there for 2 weeks. As the situation started getting worse, I was called back to my home in New Delhi, India.
We had no idea that we would be going back to our homelands, only to come back 6 months later.
On March 18, 2020 I barely made it to India from Prague, I almost missed my connecting flight in Russia to Delhi and somehow reached back home with confusion, questions and sense of hostility around everyone (especially neighbours) who heard that I returned from Europe.
All the workshops and classes shifted to a remote medium and I was stuck inside my house for 4 months straight; for the first time in my life. Yeah I know, the feelings are mutual buddy!
I am still cursing this pandemic as much as 7.8 billion people in this world.
As soon as the borders started opening, I started figuring out ways to come back to Milan and return to my university and projects. And finally on August 14, 2020, I travelled with a group of friends and came back to la citta! International Travel during the pandemic is a whole other story to tell, will put it up soon!
Anyways as excited as I was to be back, I was also worried about the condition of the apartment which was closed for 6 months straight with the food stocked up inside. With our luggage in hand, masks on our face, holding our breathe, we entered inside the apartment. To our surprise, it wasn’t smelling that bad! But, once we opened the refrigerator, it was a site to behold (literally).
I was fascinated with how mold and fungus took over the vegetables and other packed goods, giving them almost other worldly textures.
This is the food, I believe an average millennial living alone is consumes. As soon as we started sanitising our stuff and cleaning the apartment, I couldn't hold myself to take out my DSLR to cover this exquisite sight.
This is something which makes your stomach ache, but it’s also intriguing how things grow and decompose.
These bananas for example, the skin looks beautiful with a little bit of greenish/white mold making it naturally perfect.
Being frugal runs in our blood (Indians you know), so I quickly made a makeshift backdrop with the cover of one of the bar chairs in the house, fortunately my apartment was on the 7th Floor (top) providing me with ample of sunlight for long hours.
And voila! I had my studio perfectly setup!
After procrastinating for 2 months, I am finally sharing this project with you guys!
There were few items which degraded beyond recognition, few which were exploding with an ecosystem and then there were few which refused to die and stay as good as new (inedible of course).
There were few objects which were seal packed and good as new. There were two packets of white bread (pane) with an expiration date of 12.05.20, out of which one was utilised and other one was packed. And you can see what happened to the opened one.
Milk based products had very distinct and different molds growing over them. Textures, colours and patterns took over on their own, leaving sights that burn into your skull forever. You can’t look at it, you can’t look away from it. You’re disgusted but oddly captivated by it. You’ll probably hate Cream cheese and yogurt after this, but they looked really fascinating to me (maybe the smells got to me).
I won’t torture you anymore. But incase you ever wondered how things look like after decomposing, there you go!
If anyone wants to see the whole project, you can reach out to me at:
gag.bhatt@yahoo.co.in and I will be happy to share the rest of the images.
