Student creates 'chocol-art'

By Brady Haran BBC News Online, East Midlands

Ms Rimbault makes choc-soldiers

Hannah Rimbault has just returned from another of her bizarre shopping trips.

She bought herself four blocks of cooking chocolate, four tubs of cress and five bags of toy soldiers - leaving fellow shoppers somewhat bemused.

Ms Rimbault jokes: "I think they thought I was the fattest girl ever and I was going home to gorge myself."

In fact, the 21-year-old fine art student will be using the ingredients to create unusual works of art.

Rather than a conventional art medium such as paint or clay, Ms Rimbault, a student at Nottingham Trent University, uses chocolate to create her work.

"I work with chocolate predominantly because I have always looked at issues of self awareness and how you feel about yourself.

ART GALLERY Click here to see a gallery of Ms Rimbault's chocolate art

"Issues such as how the world perceives you often come down to issues of weight, especially with women.

"I thought chocolate was a good way of conveying that without being completely literal."

Ms Rimbault, originally from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, is completing the third year of her degree.

When she started working with chocolate, her canvasses were usually mirrors or windows.

"At first I just smeared them to obscure your view, so you couldn't see who you really were."

However Ms Rimbault's work caused some unexpected controversy when she covered a mirror in the public toilets at her university.

ART IN THE KITCHEN I like the idea of site specific work... it has to be shown in its relevant place Hannah Rimbault

She said: "One evening I snuck down there with a load of chocolate and smeared the whole of the mirror with it because I liked the idea of doing it in a public space.

"Also the fashion students at my university are quite conceited and spend many hours looking in the mirror, and I thought it would be quite funny to restrict their viewing."

However the cleaners did not see the funny side and left a note describing the piece as "offensive" and demanding it be removed.

Ms Rimbault has moved on and her latest works are usually "battle scenes", created on the hob in her kitchen.

They are created on a "landscape" of melted chocolate and cress, to represent mud and grass.

Melt and burn

She depicts battles between two armies of toy soldiers - one group smothered in chocolate and the other covered with mushy peas and coriander.

Depicting internal struggle, the chocolate soldiers represent everything people "do not want to be", as opposed to the "good and healthy" soldiers.

Ms Rimbault said: "The reason I do the scenes on a hob and within the kitchen is because I like the idea of site specific work... it has to be shown in its relevant place."

Once the work is complete, Ms Rimbault ignites the hob and photographs the soldiers as they melt and burn.

Like most artists, Ms Rimbault dreams of the day she can make a successful career from her creations.

But for now she can do little more than enjoy the photos and start scrubbing the hob so her housemates can cook dinner.