The Poverty Line (Tomatoes) (United Kingdom)
Stefen Chow
Singaporean, born 1980
Huiyi Lin
Singaporean, born 1980
2010-2020
An inkjet photograph that arranges a measured assortment of tomatoes on a newspaper to make visible, in a single still life, what constrained household budgets buy under the idea of a ‘poverty line.’
The eye is arrested by the vivid red of cherry and round tomatoes set against grey newsprint, photographed from above so their glossy skins, green stems, and regimented placement read like a ledger or inventory.
By turning grocery items into a clinical display, the image links design, documentary photography, and social critique—translating abstract economic statistics into an immediately graspable picture of everyday inequality.
Medium
Inkjet print
Dimensions
each: 15 9/16 × 22 13/16" (39.5 × 58 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the Fund for the Twenty-first Century and Committee on Architecture and Design Funds
Accession
95.2023.23
Palette
Exhibitions
