P1: Egg Man project statement

Egg Man

My inspiration for making this surrealist piece was my own feelings on adulthood and the transition into having bigger responsibilities. Often, people are expected to function through life normally even in times of crisis. 

The centerpiece of my project is a 3D printed sunny side up that takes on a humanoid shape, with two arms, two legs, and a head. I felt that the name of the dish--'sunny side up'--largely contradicted the nature of the food (considering the yolk is so fragile and breaks easily in the cooking process). In these ways, the dish acts as a metaphor for the human experience. I painted onto its face a half smile, which represents how people go through periods of time in which they have to smile even when it feels like life is slowly pan frying them. In its expression, I aimed to convey that the smile on the egg is not a genuine one by not lifting one side of the smile. The eyes are painted to be small to further convey how unauthentic the smile is. 

On the other hand, I chose to use a flyswatter as my found object for this piece not only for its resemblance to a pan, but also for the meaning it could bring to the piece (life can often 'smack' you unexpectedly). Because of the meaning I felt that the flyswatter was bringing, when trying to convert the flyswatter into a more pan-like object, I wanted to preserve elements of the flyswatter. This led me to 3D print only a rim for the flyswatter. The rim allowed the swatter to look like a pan, while also leaving the characteristic holes of the flyswatter visible. 

Not all hope is lost--even though egg man is fragile, he will make his way off the pan one day and onto greener pastures.