Emotional Binge Chemigrams – Néstor Daniel Pérez Molière

Emotional Binge Chemigrams: Tres Leches Cake is a series that records the leftover indexical mark of an emotional eating binge on a photographic emulsion. A tres leches cake is served on a photo paper from where the delicacy is consumed. The resulting smear on the emulsion is then processed through photographic chemicals, leaving distinct patterns as it dissolves in the liquid.

Each tile represents a particular binge session on a particular date. These chemigrams show the abject relationships that people can form with food. Each tile is the recording of the search for pleasure that is supposed to numb the frustration of a negative emotion. A quick high is achieved at the moment, but guilt is however the lingering emotion after a binge, and these tiles represent a reminder of such. Paradoxically beauty is observed within these patterns on the emulsion. Just as the session is characterized by both frustration and pleasure, viewing these chemigrams causes guilt, shame, and appeal.

This project follows the idea of emotional food journals, a technique and tool recommended for people that experience emotional eating due to negative emotions. Tracking the emotions and the eating would help determine what sort of emotions drives one to the binge, and which kinds of food are likely to be consumed.

These works form part of a large mural that contain 36 individual chemigrams.