Empty Stomachs

Empty Stomachs II

Installation
Brown paper bags
2020

2022

Many students depend on school meals to eat breakfast and lunch, therefore during school breaks these students go without balanced meals. During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, an innumerable amount of students were stuck at home hungry. The original Empty Stomachs installation was arranged in a West Louisville neighborhood. This specific neighborhood is considered a food desert.  The paper bags in the installation are empty and represent the many students going without balanced meals while living in a location where there aren’t any fresh produce grocery stores nearby. The bags also resemble urban architecture like low income/income based housing apartments. People of color are more likely to live in poverty, especially in urban settings like so, POC are often affected the most. This installation was created to spread awareness and is a call to action: How can we continue to fight child hunger? Can we build more grocery stores in places that need it?

Empty Stomachs II is a site-specific installation with the same goal of raising awarness about child hunger in low-income neigborhoods, only this installation brings the viewers thoughts about hunger into a domestic environment.