YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT takes class-based stereotypes and literally throws them back into the face.

This series of six self-portraits brings a light-hearted, satirical reflection of the classist typecasting
I experienced and witnessed as an organiser in the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union – a trade union of tireless advocates living in poverty leading the fight for welfare reform.

It was a reoccurring narrative thrown towards me that anyone experiencing financial hardship is making their situation more difficult by not buying affordable, easy-to-cook meals like pastas, noodles and sliced bread that made every cent count. To some, poverty and hunger are seen as a personal choice that is caused by poor decision-making rather than poor policymaking.

My professional skills developed at RMIT and artistic process come together in YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT to expose an underlying challenge to the experience of poverty: by wearing the unsatisfying meals that helped me starve off hunger growing up, the viewer is invited to ask – “would I be able to live like this?”

Exhibited at RMIT University, Melbourne, 2024.