Fast food: Artist's mini Olympics made of pasta and sweets

An artist has recreated Olympic sports on the small-scale using sweets, cocktail sticks – and tiny two centimetre figurines.

Photographer David Gilliver, 41, named the series ‘The Mini-Olympics’, and reimagines ten sporting events using objects you’d find at home.

This includes ‘Macaroni Hurdles’ and ‘Linguine Vault’, capturing tiny sportspeople competing with bits of pasta.

The ‘400m sweet style’ shows a swimming race taking place between barriers made of candy beads threaded onto sticks of dried spaghetti.

David Gilliver at work (SWNS/David Gilliver) David Gilliver via SWNS

David created this set during the lockdown in February and March this year on a small desk at his home in Gartcosh, Glasgow.

David said: “At the start of 2021 I felt strongly compelled to create a new series of photographs in our house that depict figurines on tiny expeditions and going on holidays as an escape and to help lighten the mood a little.

“Add to that the repeated delays with the Olympics, and so I decided that if the Olympics wouldn’t come to me then I would create my own miniature series of events.”

400mm Sprint (SWNS/David Gilliver) David Gilliver via SWNS

In one image, a 2cm clay athlete launches herself over a high jump made of a cocktail stick propped up by Fizzers, to land on the cushion of a Gummy Bear.

David also photographed a small diver prone to leap off a chocolate bar into a pool of blue M&Ms.

His list of ingredients for the set included macaroni, spaghetti, asparagus, candy bracelets, linguine, polenta, candy sprinkles, Gummy Bears, Fizzers, blue M&Ms and a Kinder Bar.

The Low Jump (SWNS/David Gilliver) David Gilliver via SWNS

The father-of-one said: “My weekly shops were interesting.

“All I could think about when I was in Morrisons during that fortnight was what might make a decent prop for my next scene!

“Anything that got used in the scenes and avoided glue, was either put back in its packet (for use later) or eaten!”

The 40mm Sweetsyle (SWNS/David Gilliver) David Gilliver via SWNS

He spent over an hour setting up each scene and took more than 700 photos in total with his Canon 5D Mark III before whittling it down to the final ten.

David said: “The miniature worlds that I create help to transport me away from what is going on in the real world which has been incredibly therapeutic, especially during the past 12 months.

“My artworks normally carry a layer of humour within them, which is kind of unavoidable when photographing tiny little people.