Delicious Artwork Made With Knots

Burger II

Summer is my favorite time of the year. The best part about them? Picnics. With lots of food. Ed Bing Lee creates picnic-like artwork that almost looks like the real thing.

Chocolate Cupcake

The delicious looking ‘food’ is all part of his “Delectable” series.

He has been perfecting the art of the knot for over 25 years and uses “double half hitch mainly, square knot and wrappings, and at times invented knots for the situation.”

Cupcake With Sprinkles

I asked Mr. Lee how long it takes to make one of these and he said an average of one month with a maximum of three months depending on material and the number of ply or thickness of the linen, raffia, cotton or hemp.

Hot Dog

When asked what his motivation was to start these projects, “My first use of contemporary images of food started with my PICNIC series, wherein I juxtaposed scenes drawn from Seurat's pointillism paintings and advertising images of food. I started to see the images as a form of soft sculpture and in reality they are baskets with an attitude. I also enjoyed the humor and the ubiquitousness of the food types I've selected. I like to think that there is some social and political comment beneath the flippancy.”

Ice Cream Cone

Key Lime Pie

Mini Cupcake

Pumpkin Pie

Strawberry Cake

I think anything made to look like food is pretty cool. These works of art made me want to go out and get a big juicy hamburger and slather it all with ice cream.

I wonder if I could gather all of these together and throw a fake 'picnic' for my family. I'll make them think there's all this delicious food on the table, when in fact it won't be real at all. Then I'll hop in my car and laugh all the way to McDonald's.

Many thanks to Ed Bing Lee.