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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Two: Travel Incongruities > Ice Cream Frenzy, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2005
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18-JUN-2005

Ice Cream Frenzy, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2005

This oversized cartoonish sculpture is intended to draw customers into a Leiden ice cream shop. Overflowing with simulated melted ice cream, it obviously must be doing its job well -- the store was overflowing with customers. Both the sculpture and my image are based on incongruous exaggeration in scale as well as behavior. My image gives no clue as to the actual size of the sculpture – that is why I made it as I did. I leave that to the imagination of the viewer. The behavior of the kid is also an incongruous exaggeration – sitting in a puddle of melting ice cream is hardly a pleasure, yet he seems to be shoveling it in and enjoying every drop. The three lights glowing in the background add a theatrical context, and one even serves as a symbolic crown. It’s the kind of image that may make some queasy and others salivate. The sculpture may be based on Dutch humor, yet I found it amusing, and it certainly drew a crowd of hungry ice cream lovers into the shop.

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Phil Douglis23-Jul-2006 18:22
And advertisers know that, and cater to it, Emi. More is always better. Super size me! Eat till you die! That is what this image really says when you stop and think about it. Thanks for underscoring this idea.
Guest 23-Jul-2006 12:18
My point is more or less like Kal, I see it as a sign of danger and sign of abuse. This needs to a reflection of today's society. We want everything in big size, the more the better....but we never content...

Emi
Phil Douglis03-Jul-2005 19:25
Thanks, Kal, for this wonderful interpretation. I was very careful not to offer my own interpretation in the analysis, except to say I found it amusing. I leave the ultimate meaning of the image up to viewers such as yourself. I point out the incongruities, and set the stage for the imagination to take over. Gluttony, self-harm, self-consumption are all wonderfully expressive viewpoints, even if they do kind of take all the fun out of this image. Cartoons are exaggerations. And this sculpture is very much a three dimensional cartoon in huge scale. It points up our foibles and follies. And in your own view, our penchant for self-destruction.
Kal Khogali03-Jul-2005 14:34
My interpretation of this image is different to yours Phil. I see this as a symbol of consumption taken to the extreme. It is as if the the child is actually consuming himself. His lust for th ice-cream had made him into the ice-cream (we become that which we crave), and now he suffers (or enjoys) the consequence...he must consume himself. It is an image about gluttony and self-harm.
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