Omar Castaneda

Of Colombian origin but based in the UK, Omar Castaneda focuses his artistic practice on food. Much of his work uses food, animal tissue, and human body parts to address—visually and metaphorically—the intersection of competing cultural values brought about by food. Tropical Chimera Lovers is part of a series of playful works questioning the use of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and other human interventions in nature for the sole purpose of satisfying our appetites and comforts, with no regard for the needs of our natural environment and overlooking our responsibility to the ecosystem we inhabit. In the work, two blue and white glazed ceramic bananas emerge from two apples and intertwine as if they were two phallic forms caressing each other. Two fruits that cannot be eaten but are attractive to our sight satisfy our desires, regardless of their impossibility of existing as natural products.