The Poverty Line

2010 - 2020.

The Poverty Line uses the universal lens of food to examine daily choices we would face living at the poverty line. Over the last 10 years, the artists travelled 200,000 kilometers to create case studies of 36 countries and territories spanning 6 continents.

Each country’s figure is based on the official poverty definition to derive a per-person, per-day rate. For middle and high income economies, the average low-income household food expenditure is taken into account, while for low income economies, the entire daily income of a poor individual is used. Food items are procured from local markets using these monetary amounts. Each case study comprises of different food groups including vegetables, fruits, grains, protein and snacks.

The project utilises a typological format, an extension from the Bechers’ approach. Documented in uniform dimensionality, the art works beckon scrutiny while trying to make sense of its totality. Individual portraits of food items bathed in dramatic light suggest existential meaning of a bunch of bananas, scattered rice grains or a leg of chicken. This is analogous to still life paintings dating back to ancient Grecco-Roman era but reexamined in contemporary realism.

Newspapers form the monotonous backdrops crowded with international headlines screaming for attention. It reflects our incessant obsession with information, but in a format which its relevance is being questioned. From 2004 to 2018, 1800 US local newspapers shuttered or merged. This seismic shift in information dissemination has impacted the accessibility in a connected and distracted civilisation.

The Poverty Line is a growing conversation that questions our understanding of poverty and inequality. Traversing cultures and economic systems, it confronts the viewer with objective, non- emotional observations of our own circumstance, framed against the fragile balance of social structures, growth and divide in an entangled globalised world.