‚FARMED TO THEETH‘, since 2022
Work on a window expressed by a toothpaste called ‚white and shine‘.
The collapsible tube, as a container for toothpaste, was inspired by the observations of Parisian bohemians in the 1870s by the American dentist Washington Sheffield after his studies in Paris. Through this coincidence, toothpaste became a type of paint with a multi-layered material history background, from crushed bone to ash. Sheffield even added chalk to the „Creme Dentifrice Angelique“ (Angel Cream for Teeth) and marketed it as the first industrially produced toothpaste.
The picture of a middle-class nuclear family was painted: white and shining. The man who sells his time for money, and the woman who produces and cares for one of the most valuable commodities of capitalism at home: the worker. Her work at home, in the meantime, was even brushed away with a smile in this painting.
In Hinduism, the cleaning of the mouth – and therefore the teeth – is attributed spiritual significance, as the mouth is considered the gateway to the body.
It is long past time to ask ourselves what kind of spirits we should allow to cleanse the entrances of our minds and what kind of images we then behold through those openings.
