Taste Tests
“‘taste tests in color’ is a fresh actualization of brandt’s existing monochromatic series taste tests in which the artist silk screened picturesque american landscapes by using a food item in place of traditional ink such as ketchup or mole sauce. in this particular ‘taste test’, the artist recreates the image of vernal falls of yosemite national park into several multi-layered prints made permanent by food or household objects such as toothpaste, kool-aid, airhead candies, or pharmecutical pills, recreating the colors typically observed in CMYK or RGB color models.”
—Designboom, edible silk screens + lake water photographs by matthew brandt, by Leigha DB, 2012
https://www.designboom.com/art/edible-silk-screens-lake-water-photographs-by-matthew-brandt/
“Matthew Brandt has used Cheez Whiz to print a photograph. And Kool-Aid. And human tears. It’s all part of Brandt’s fascination with the photographic process and, on a larger scale, a relationship with what he photographs and its imprint on the physical world.”
—SLATE Magazine, How to Make a Photograph Out of Cheez Whiz, Kool-Aid, and Dead Skin, by David Rosenberg, 2013
“With candy, for instance. For his "Taste Tests in Color" series, Brandt says he wanted to toy with an iconic image made "out of materials that you wouldn't think would be in a photograph" — and that may not be exactly archival. He took a classic shot of a waterfall in Yosemite National Park, then silk-screened the image with common household ingredients: cake sprinkles (some collect at the bottom of the frame), Kool-Aid, Laffy Taffy, even mouthwash and crushed pharmaceuticals. "I'm always grocery-store hunting," Brandt says, laughing. "I had to buy yellow gummy bears in five-pound bulk bags. Adderall has a nice blue tint."
—ELLE decor, ART SHOW: MATTHEW BRANDT, by Vicky Lowry, 2012
https://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/g323/matthew-brandt-artist/