Gluttony is traditionally defined as excessive consumption beyond necessity and is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Thomas Aquinas identified several forms of gluttony, including laute—the desire for food that is luxurious, rare, exotic, or expensive. This concept forms the basis of this work.
The decorative wallpaper combines tropical landscapes, brightly coloured fruits, sweets, and iced treats. While the imagery appears playful and seductive, it raises questions about consumption beyond food. The work asks whether places are consumed like products, transformed into commodities to be purchased, photographed, and shared.
In this context, gluttony becomes linked to colonialism. Colonial expansion was driven by the extraction of spices, sugar, fruit, land, labour, and culture for distant powers. Many tropical goods that symbolised wealth in Europe were products of these exploitative systems.
Today, similar patterns persist through mass tourism and global consumer culture, where the pursuit of novelty can turn entire regions into products for consumption.
The skull at the centre of the composition acts as a memento mori, questioning whether modern society has become gluttonous not only in what it eats, but in what it desires an endless appetite for more, regardless of the cost.