Salad contains several twisted connections between our cultural past and present. The veggie monster combines the 500-hyear old vegetable creations of Giuseppe Arcimboldo with the more recent surrealistic creatures of H.R. Giger. At the same time, it combines the components of a classical oil painting with today’s digital techniques. A common aspect of Till Nowak’s work is inversion of the spectator’s point of view. Here it is reflected by wholesome vegetables in the role of a bloodthirsty creature. Maybe we can recognize ourselves in this ironic portrait of our society as humans acting like wolves in a sheep’s clothing. WE are so well off as inhabitants of a wholesome society that we ignore the fact that we also live in a world in which people die of hunger and bloodshed through feminine and war on a daily basis.

Till Nowak modeled 12 digital vegetables in 3ds Max using classical polygon-modeling techniques. The 3D models were combined in different sizes and variations to match the shape of a hungry creature. Photographs of fresh vegetables were used for the texturing process. The final image was done by rendering several passes, such as diffuse, specular, and ambient occlusion, using 3ds Max, a Scanline renderer and mental ray.