Razor Blade Gummy Bears
Cyanide laced lollipops. Pin infested marshmallows. Razor blade laden chocolate bars. The idea of adulterating sweets and candies with harmful substances has been prominent since the 1950s, with the cautionary rhetoric serving as a warning to both children and adults. While actual cases of adulterated candies are rare and infinitely more complex than the mythology would imply; why is it that rationality makes way for paranoia, suspicion and fantasy in the face of this delicious myth? We consume it, as we consume others like it: the millennium bug, bird flu, Kony 2012, Trump’s wall. Today, we have learned to refer to these stories as fake news––prophecies that may not come to fruition, yet tend to provoke mass hysteria.
Razor Blade Gummy Bears observes the sickly fascination of the myth, its absurdity and allure made tangible in the form of gleaming translucent resin. The Haribo Gummies sit passively, pristine, sweet and grinning as they await consumption, their contents obscured by the tempting, smooth gloss of their exterior. Move, and the light reflecting from their surfaces twists and warps, slicing through complacency to reveal their inner deviance.
Oversized, corpulent distortions of their true form, the bears are familiar and obscene, unrealistic yet instantly recognisable. They are vicious, enticing and impossible.
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Leo Joseph is a London-based graphic designer and visual artist.