Cracker or the Host is a monumental investigation into the semiotics of mass-produced aspiration. Carved from soapstone—a raw material traditionally used as a thermal baking surface by indigenous peoples—the work renders a hyper-processed Ritz cracker at an architectural scale. Named after the luxury hotel franchise to suggest a "prestige" accessible via the grocery aisle, the Ritz is a symbol of industrial artifice. By fossilizing this ephemeral icon into geological stone, I study the tension between ancestral sustenance and the "ultra-processed" consumerist ritual, positioning the cracker as a secular host in the modern assembly.

Created July 2023