Selections from Death by Chocolate, 2008
Death By Chocolate was a participatory project by artist Andrew Wright and photographer Stefan A. Rose, whereby participants stage their own deaths using chocolate syrup provided by the local Dairy Queen. Wright and Rose provided Dairy Queen patrons the opportunity to don a white t-shirt, douse themselves in chocolate syrup, and die for the camera.
Chocolate syrup was an effective surrogate for blood in black & white films, most notably in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho to emphasize drama and the suspension of disbelief. American photographer Arthur Fellig, known popularly as ‘Weegee’, was both a crime scene photographer and keen observer of people and groups. Death By Chocolate is in some ways an homage to, and a combination of, these two practices.
