Fortunes
On reflection, the cookie sculptures don't need flocking. The neon paint has a really sumptuous matt quality which was what I was after. Some basic tests I conducted with the flocking powder proved it to be inconsistent in result and so confirmed this choice. I am out of time now anyway so it is by the by. Adding the fusing has created the effect I wanted with the textile fortunes. They have a pleasing way of sitting and stay put once placed.
The reasoning behind the faint writing of these fortunes in contrast with the impossibly vibrant fortunes speaks of the nature of the object. Before crack open a fortune cookie, it holds infinite possibility. Once we open the object and the fortune is revealed, it collapses these multiple universes, and reveals only one option. The cookie becomes less powerful for being opened. The fortune less fortunate for being read. And so it is correct while telling this story that the fortunes embroidered on the fabric are almost indistinguishable.
This also amplifies the joke inherent in each fortune I chose to include, because they are all somewhat sinister, bizarre, hilarious and frankly unfortunate. Once we have managed to discern what each fortune reads, it feels odd and disappointing. Again this references my point of this piece. That a prescribed fortune is far less fascinating than a multiverse of possibility. It is a broader comment on capitalism, and the lies that we are told as consumers to either incentivise or reward consumption.
They say that fortune favours the brave. This is definitely a requirement for every one of these fortunes.
Run.
Your pet is planning to eat you.
For rectal use only.
Never do anything halfway (with the same fortune printed and cut off at the bottom)
This cookie is never going to give you up, never going to let you down.
I will only be able to include up to 4 of these as my 5th cookie sculpture was used as my test piece for experimenting with painting and flocking. In hindsight I should have printed 6 for this reason.
My 5 larger fortunes all say the same thing: you are one in a million. This is a further examination of the vacuousness of consumer culture. It is also meta, because the reality is that we are all in fact exceptional, unique and precious. There is a freedom in sitting equally with the facts that we are both utterly insignificant and also wonderfully special. This is what I am talking about in this piece.
Again, this project tested my sewing skills as it was actually a hugely difficult thing to create them all to the same size while making them all look slightly different. My sewing machine actually broke on the last one and I had to finish it by hand. I am interpreting this as a protest that mirrored my own frustrations presented by the work.
