Sugarcoated

Within this project, titled "Sugarcoated", I critique the consumerism surrounding sugary convenience store drinks by mirroring the advertising tactics that mask their environmental and health consequences. The start mimics flashy, marketing techniques intended to draw the viewer in. As you scroll, you'll see the images interact with one another seamlessly, drastically increasing in sugar content. At the end is pure sugar which serves as commentary on the boundaries between the marketed ideal and harsh reality. It reveals how consumer identities are shaped by commercial strategies, moving beyond the convenience store into personal areas like financial burden, long-term health issues, and environmental harm from single use packaging. This transformation reflects how these products are literally and figuratively "sugarcoated", their surface hiding the deeper costs that weigh us down just like the pile of sugar at the end. The image included at the bottom is piece come to life; It is made of a handcrafted box, a laser cut lid, LED lights attached to the perimeter of the back face as to illuminate on the wall, a Large Format Printed version of the images, and a mound of granulated sugar. This piece showed in an exhibition was titled "Tracing Boundaries- The intersections of Places and Identities" which was held in the Fine Arts Building Gallery at Florida State University between January 16th and January 30th of 2025.