Monday, November 23, 2009
Exposure
So, on Thursday after class I went to the panel discussion for the Exposure festival. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the whole discussion but the part that I was able to hear was very interesting. Brian Frances spoke again and was just as funny and candid as he was in our class. He gave a quick summary of Fruit and then answered a few questions about it but it wasn't as interesting of a discussion as we had in class, in my opinion. Cindy Baker's work was really interesting though. She is working on performance art pieces that deal primarily with the body and societies issues with weight, appearance and taboo. She seems to confront viewers with her size in order to force them to consider the 'otherness' of being overweight in a society that views it as bad. I think that this is fairly interesting however, i do believe that society reacts that way partially because of health issues and a perceived epidemic although it likely comes across as a personal offence. In any case, her work challenges peoples responses and forces them to size her up. whether it is to sew her clothing or by viewing her in a glass cube. The discussion was really interesting and I was sorry I had to leave early!
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Although i am not familiar with CIndy Baker, i believe that issues with weight in our society far exceed the perceived health risks of being heavy and that people who challenge the stereotypes are very important to the social discourse of our time. In Francis' story, Peter struggles with issues of his weight because of what we are led to believe is overeating, many children (myself included) we a little on the heavy side and suffered substantially because of it. Parents pass down prejudices on to their children about the health consequences of being a overweight adult, and the children superimpose this believe onto their peers. The fact is, if we change the attitudes around being fat, instead of treating it as a form of leprosy that we would do anything to keep from being exposed to, if we invest in healthy lifestyle training, we may be able to alter the cyclical nature of emotional obesity.
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