March 2002
The Face Magazine (page 64)
By Robin Bresnark
Food for thought: “I’ve become my own paparazzi”, says art student.
What was the 1338th thing you ate in the past year? Can’t recall? Ellie Harrison, a fine art graduate from Nottingham Trent University, can - hers was a crepe paysanne from Café Rouge in Oxford. But Harrison’s no spooky memory-mistress, just a rigorous documenter of diet - she’s recorded and photographed every single thing she’s eaten since her 22nd birthday on March 11 2001, via her website. Part art project, part diary, part web curio, Eat 22 is the latest development of Harrison’s ongoing fixation with food.
“I do love the stuff”, she confesses, “so this is essentially a research project, documenting a year of my life through my very favourite thing”. Eat 22 will continue to map Harrison’s mastication until March 11 this year, pausing to ponder questions as: Why did she eat her dad’s prize tomatoes? Why did she think of her stomach during a Stop The War march? And why - dear God, why? - did she consider staying at the Alton Towers Hotel? Such self-scrutiny merely pre-empts current art trends, says Harrison. “All the Young British Artists have become celebrities and so I’ve become my own paparazzi”.
