Guys and Fries

Guys and Fries, a 2018 lithograph, depicts french fries — likely in their familiar paper sleeve or cardboard container — as a still-life subject. The title puns on the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls, folding American popular culture into the work's substrate. Nam's treatment of fast food as a subject for serious printmaking reflects her broader examination of how ordinary, disposable objects carry cultural and social meaning. Lithography's capacity for continuous tone allows her to render the golden-brown textures of fried potato with precision. The Birds & Flowers subject classification suggests the composition may incorporate additional elements alongside the fries, or may reflect the way Nam positions consumer food within a visual register associated with natural subjects.