For her series Product Recall: An Index of Innovation (2014–2015), Maryam Jafri has assembled products that were launched by companies during the 20th century, but failed and were removed again from the market. The products include food substitutes for children titled I HATE PEAS, I HATE BEETS, and I HATE CORN, supposedly antiviral Kleenex tissues, and candy distributed under the brand Ayds, which were promoted for the purpose of losing weight. Ayds had been around for forty years by the time the aids crisis burgeoned. Aside from the negative connotations attached to the name, the product was banned by the FDA in the 1990s since one of its main ingredients were amphetamines, making it a popular component in the illegitimate manufacture of drugs.

Drawing from the archive of an anonymous former brand consultant and other food industry figures, Jafri’s collection reveals how sciences and agribusiness are implicated in the mass production, circulation, and marketing of commodities, and how at times the dreams of the industry fail in more or less funny ways.

#taxidermy #power #monarchy #politics #vanity #chicken #royalty

photos: Nysos Vasilopoulos, 6th Athens Biennale 2018 ANTI