Above: Aesthetic Fast documentary
Below: Aesthetic Fast concept film
Aesthetic Fast is an inclusive performance artwork inviting participants to make a physical response to the suffering of others through enacted symbolism; by becoming part of a living artwork. It is a proposition in theological aesthetics; considering how every ethical and humanitarian choice we make as individuals or groups (whether commissive or ommissive) may be understood in an aesthetic register, as the creation of new relational forms.
Performers choose to wear a gemstone ring from a country where human trafficking (particularly sex trafficking) is common, but with the gemstone hidden. This constitutes an act of fasting, in this case aesthetic fasting as the stones remain concealed by an electroforming (silver plating) process that remains over the gem for as long as each performer chooses.