These Fruits Explode With Color. Literally.
Artist Maciek Jasik won’t share the secrets behind his work, but the mystery is part of the fun
Maciek Jasik responds with the well-mannered evasiveness of a sly magician when asked about this arresting image. Peach-colored smoke really is billowing out of this spaghetti squash, the photographer says, and the trick was accomplished with readily available materials. “But I’m not going to reveal how I did it,” because that would make the picture “100 percent less interesting.” It’s one in a series, “The Secret Lives of Fruits and Vegetables”—he has also explored the mysteries of eggplants, cauliflower, a bell pepper and a pineapple—that’s meant to jolt us out of complacency. “The idea is to create a sense of confusion...to reinvent reality,” says the 37-year-old Brooklyn artist, whose enigmatic portraits, still-lifes and landscapes have appeared in galleries nationwide. “It’s an urge to take something mundane and make it strange.”
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