Miłość is hungry to announce Lydia Pettit’s first solo show with the gallery, "Meet Me in the Market". Through oil painting, the exhibition explores the preparation of the body and personality for dating, drawing parallels between dating apps and the rituals of preparing food. We serve an idealised version of ourselves to strangers, who do the same, at a marketplace with little protection for those most vulnerable to consumption. What are you willing to do to yourself to become appetising? Which parts of yourself will you serve? What will you sacrifice to be seen as delicious, rich and fatty, and sickeningly sweet?
Dating apps stand as markets, where we construct identities based on what others desire; funny quips and flattering photos creating a facsimile we browse through for purchase. We take on a role of a butcher prepared to cut down to size to be palatable, while it is our own body that awaits slicing, marinating, cooking and serving to strangers.
In ‘Meet Me in the Market’, Lydia plays both roles: the animal ready for roasting, and the butcher doing the cutting, artfully carving the most attractive parts of the self out for presentation. The viewer gets to witness the preparation stage – twine holding flesh together, rosemary, thyme pressed into skin, oil, onion, and lemon seasoning the body. A delicate elegance of finely plated food shrouds the gruesome nature of what we are willing to do to ourselves to be wanted, and the lengths we go to satisfy hunger.