Feeling Fried?

What began as a mindless, repetitive meditation—an attempt to escape a fast-paced, anxiety-ridden world—has evolved into a meditation on ostentatious opulence, extravagant spending, and artificial price inflation, particularly as these forces expose the widening divide between the lower classes and the top 1%, who hold a disproportionate share of the nation’s wealth.

The title Feeling Fried? operates as both a literal and metaphorical reference. The fried egg serves as a symbol of an ordinary, everyday necessity, while “fried” reflects the mental and emotional exhaustion produced by living within an increasingly fast-paced, consumer-driven society. The question in the title is intentionally casual and familiar, echoing the language of advertising and convenience culture while asking a more serious question: how do we continue to function when the systems surrounding us leave us feeling economically and emotionally depleted?

Stringing each bead one at a time forces me to slow down, creating a deliberate counterpoint to the speed of capitalist consumerism in which we are expected to participate. The labor-intensive process of beadwork transforms an otherwise mundane, mass-produced object into a painstakingly crafted one, emphasizing the contrast between slow, handmade production and the accelerated systems of mass consumption.

The ornate gold frame elevates the mundane object, mimicking the visual language of luxury and excess. Because the egg is magnetized to the frame rather than permanently attached, the food remains within reach—if only the viewer is willing to reach out for it. Through perhaps they feel they are not allowed. This tension between accessibility and inaccessibility reflects our increasingly complicated relationship with basic necessities.

The series ultimately examines fast-paced, mass-produced capitalism in contrast with slow, handmade production, particularly through the lens of everyday goods that are assumed to be affordable and accessible. Even something as ordinary as an egg becomes a mass-produced commodity, produced through industrial systems that often house chickens in overcrowded facilities. By painstakingly recreating this familiar object bead by bead and presenting it within an ornate framework associated with wealth and luxury, I draw attention to the absurdity of a system in which basic necessities can become symbols of economic disparity.