Ra Men

As for to become an art-teacher, I had to do an exhibition. This was one of three artworks I had to present. It was called 'Ra-men'.

The meaning of that work was to show how different the consumption of Ramen can be recognized. In case you eat them, you kind of become a Ra-man and you are a part of that Ra-men - community. That work here represents one of them.

So let me start with the consuments and the one side. In case you`ll eat one Ramen, the cover shows up on your Kimono like a trophy. In case you didn´t like it, this will probably be your one an only try and you`ll probably move over to the criticals.
If you enjoyed eating Ramen, you will do it more often. And more and more trophys will show up on your Kimono.
The front of the Kimono is very unique depending to your habits. Maybe there are only the same Ramen-covers, because you prefer one special soup, maybe there are only a few, maybe there are thousands and thousand of all kinds.
That Kimono shall symbolize your experience or your memory. So for you, this collection is something fun.
The Kimono shall symbolize you becoming something spezial, like a choosen one, because you are able to make these interesting experiences.
The white crusts on the sleeves are made of glutamat. As a consumer you´ll by chance enjoy the taste, you won't find anything bad about it. You`ll know, that adding glutamat will round up your food. And while watching that Ramen, filled up will all that tasty noodles, you'll might be thinking "Uh, somebody had a really nice meal". You´ll probably envy him and you might come closer and have a closer look on the experience of him.

But on the other hand, there are the criticals. For them, that doesn't look like something special but only like something strange. That doest look tasty, but only disgusting. They'll think, that your whole body is kind of contaminated because you - at least once - ate the evil food. And probably evil glutamat. Though there might not be any artificial ingedrients in your food, the criticals will still believe that just because of the covers. They'll see and smell only the decomposition of the noodles. They will be completely disgusted and step away as far as possible. And for them it doesn't matter, how the front of your Kimono looks, how many trophaes you got. They just don`t want to get in touch with it.

Yes, I know, it`s kind of exaggerated. That was what I wanted to express. And it was so funny for me to see exactly that happening while while my teachers were visiting it =) It think is funny, that you can transfer it on other toppics. In the end it´s all about tolerance and beeing open minded.

The covers were fixed by Velcro. The Kimono was made of felt. I took a while to collect all the covers and to sew the Kimono.

(My favourite one is 'Shin Ramyun' from 'Nongshim' - so tasty!!! =p )