An NFT collection of food or monsters? Artist says it’s both – he finds the ‘beasts’ in mirrored images of dishes, from dumplings to French toast
- David Leung Dai-wai is the mastermind behind digital art project ‘Beasts From Feasts’. Each art piece is a mirrored image of a dish that looks like a monster
- 12 Hong Kong dishes – from dim sum to dumplings – have been tweaked into beastly faces and put on display at PMQ Taste Library in Central
“I love taking food photos, but it wasn’t until [this year] that I had an opportunity to add an extra identity to my portfolio – artist. It was unintentional. I was in Australia, where I took a random photo of the sky and posted it online, and the reactions were intriguing.
“People saw different things in the shape of the clouds, from the Michelin man to a burger, and even the Spotify logo. It made me delve deeper into the phenomenon known as pareidolia, when you see specific things in random images. Most people use clouds as an example, but I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if that were applied to other contexts?’”
Finding inspiration on a plate
“I looked through my tens of thousands of food shots, thinking I might find something: maybe a ham and cheese croissant becomes more than just a pastry.
“Some are easy to identify, but some require imagination. And then there’s a moment – I feel like I’m not looking at the ‘beast’, rather it’s looking back at me. It’s a bit scary.
In perfect symmetry
“I have a bit of obsessive compulsive disorder, so I like things to be orderly. That’s why [all my pieces are manipulated mirror images and] have symmetry. I haven’t really done much to the photos.