Artist Transforms Food Into Elaborate Edible Masks, Then Eats Them

Growing up you’re told that it’s impolite to play with your food. I distinctly remember being forced to sit at the kitchen table until I finished my vegetables, pointlessly attempting to distribute the remains around the plate to give the appearance that I had made some progress. Although my strategy wasn’t successful, my stubbornness eventually won out. 

Foodmasku is a food content maker that creates quirky wearable and edible masks, taking playing with your food to a whole new dimension. His name is a pun on Indonesia’s Bahasa and Javanese languages, and mas-ku can be interpreted as my brother, my friend, or my lover. He ingeniously finds ways to reinterpret how we view what we eat. Breads, fruits, vegetables, and meats are all at his creative disposal, and for a fitting final touch, he eats it. 

He launched the account in April 2020 after being inspired by a friend using a funny face filter that made them look like a pickle. The first mask was a single tortilla wrapped around his mouth like a ninja. That later evolved into a Veggie Maki Roll, with two rolls for the eyes and an open-faced roll for the mouth cover. The masks continued to evolve, with one cleverly combining green beans, spinach, chayote, and a boiled egg. Today, Facemasku’s Instagram account showcases hundreds of elaborate edible masks.

Two of my favorites are the Dragon Fruit mask and the Sourdough tree. The former looks like a colorful warrior’s mask, while the latter looks almost too good to eat. Today, Foodmasku’s art appears on billboards around the globe. A recent live performance art of his may have come across your timeline, working up a viral storm as it features two subjects curiously — and hilariously — eating Foodmasku’s mask at a dinner table.

Foodmasku frequently shares new mask creations and was even recently invited to speak about art at the United Nations. In addition to face art, he’s a vocal supporter of sustainability.