Photograph by Katherine Bish
When performance artist Karen Finley smeared herself with chocolate syrup in the ’80s, she was making a statement about females as victims. When Katherine Bish (katherinebish.com) smeared herself—and more than 100 others—with chocolate syrup this summer, she was making a statement about pelicans as victims.
Bish, a successful St. Louis–based commercial photographer (and longtime SLM contributor), explains that an Associated Press photo of a seabird soaked from beak to toe in goopy crude oil from the BP drilling-rig disaster aroused her pity and concern. She began photographing human models in various states of dress, covered in chocolate syrup to evoke animals injured and killed by the oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
“When this idea came to mind, I knew actual oil would be toxic to use,” she explains. “I’ve had some experience working with chocolate syrup at photo shoots, from being a food stylist. And it turns out that in black-and-white, it really looks like crude oil. Also, if it got in people’s mouths, it would actually taste good.”
Bish’s photos of people of all backgrounds (including Mayor Francis Slay) grimacing under spatters of chocolate syrup—applied in amounts ranging from sprinkle to bath—are emotion-inducing. Sales of the work, on view at the Mad Art Gallery this month, will be donated to charities working to help wildlife in the Gulf.
After each shoot, the photographer explains, the cleanup process is something to behold. “I have two kiddie pools, buckets of soapy water, sponges, baby wipes, and towels in the studio, and the models can go downstairs to the bathrooms, too,” she says. “The birds, of course, don’t have these options.”
