In Candy Without Consequence, Janette Chien writes about the “guilty pleasures” associated with the exhibition that just closed at Space 1026

In the review, Chien remarks on all the major pieces of the installation.  Of the animation, she writes:

The video animation Taste you all over, poised on top of the cans, features a woman literally stimulating herself. The video plays off Friedman’s earlier Tasty installation, which is also included in this exhibition. Tasty depicts a soda can pouring “goo” into a woman’s mouth, recalling common pornographic moments. Unlike Tasty, Taste you all over removes the ejaculate and any other external form of stimuli. The woman in the video does not consume anything of substance, nor insert any sexual object. Her stimulation is autosexual; it is virtual and it stimulates us. She plays on an endless loop, never climaxing, never experiencing the consequential jouissance of her actions.

And she ends the review saying:

In Tastier, Friedman makes an adept commentary on the current state of pleasure and its entanglement with simulation versus real experience. We are all too quick to reach for the Coke Zero for fear of gaining weight and losing our sexual appeal. We are easily seduced by simulation; it feels safe, predictable, and under our control. We substitute masturbation and fantasy for the unpredictable landscape of real life experiences. We find intimacy in candy-colored bodies that perform autosexual fantasies and turn our heads away from the fleshy skin of our own bodies.  We find titillation in the ejaculation of a fizzy Coke Zero bursting out of the can and revel in its taste. But its nature is pure simulation. It’s benefit is the absence of any substance to begin with. We seek to be absorbed into this candy colored void where we can have our candy, and eat it too.

To read the entire review, click here.