Kirsten Stolle

Feed (2016)

PRESS RELEASE

Feed is part of my photo and text-based project By the Ton, which examines the legacy of agrichemical companies and their influence on the global food system.  Using buzzwords and slogans from chemical company promotional materials, and historical factory photographs, the series dissects industry rhetoric and critiques the practice of corporate greenwashing.

Feed is an important word used by agrichemical corporations such as Bayer-Monsanto, Dow-Dupont, and Syngenta. On their websites, “feed” is used as a promotional device to engender positive feelings about the company: feed the world, feed families, and feed the push toward sustainability.  Of course, feed has multiple meanings and for me was an ideal word to upend their rebranding and resurface their toxic past: feed the stockholders, feed the corporation, feed the degradation of the soil, and feed the prescribed narrative. By mirroring their seductive corporate imagery and language, the work disrupts perceptions and invites viewers to critically engage with propaganda.