The Whale: Exploring fatphobia through art in Pittsburgh
Grotesque in the Grotto
Grotesque in the Grotto
Grotesque in the Garden
Grotesque in the Garden
Swimming in the Nostalgia of Imaginary Pies
Swimming in the Nostalgia of Imaginary Pies

Installed at Brew House Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA for Soma Grossa, curated by Anna Mirzayan, Nov-Dec 2022

Otherwordly Abundance
Otherwordly Abundance
This Grotto Breathes
This Grotto Breathes

In the fifteenth century Nero’s Domus Aurea, a forgotten underworld palace was rediscovered beneath the streets of Rome. The rooms were ornately decorated with frescos, mosaics, and abundant gold leaf. In awe, artists would visit the site, becoming heavily influenced by the spectacle. Deeming the ruin ‘grottesca’ or ‘of the cave’, the imagery and word would eventually morph into the contemporary ‘grotesque’.1

Noticing that works depicting fat or transgressive bodies are often categorized as grotesque, Schneider decided to appropriate the root of the word (grotto-esque) to imagine a grotto made of squishy adipose-like bread. This Grotto Breathes is an immersive exhibition; imagery of cheap carbohydrates like bread and potato chips complicates understandings of fatness, food, and the modern-day understanding of the word grotesque. Simultaneously beguiling and threatening 2, we cannot help but be drawn to the grotesque. This murky fascination serves as the catalyst from which to renegotiate understandings of fatness through the architecture and slippery meaning of the grotesque (grotto-esque).

1,2 Squire, Michael. “Fantasies so varied and bizarre”: The Domus Aurea, the Renaissance, and the “grotesque”’, in M. Dinter and E. Buckley (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to the Age of Nero (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell), pp. 449. 2012.

This Grotto Breathes Vimeo

A bread making demo and discussion of the themes in the exhibition This Grotto Breathes installed at Neutral Ground Artist Run

Biliopancreatic Diversion
Biliopancreatic Diversion

Small sculptures representing different types of bariatric surgeries.

Last Ditch

Last Ditch is a short video piece that shows my arms, chest, hands, and hair as I stand half immersed in a body of water. In the video I am holding a small ball of bread dough shaped like a belly. I gently submerge the dough belly into the water and begin to wash it while chanting the phrase: “This weight leaves me, in a healthy way. Calmly, easily, without obsession. From 248, to 172. May this spell, make it true.” As I wash the dough belly it dissolves in the water, creating a pale cloud of flour and salt. My incantation repeats deliberately, gaining speed slowly, accompanied by the sounds of the lapping water. Eventually the dough belly is completely dissolved in the water, I rinse my hands and flick off drops of water as the screen fades to black.

As with the Moon Pools, Last Ditch appropriates elements of witchcraft to speak to the nature of diet culture. A ritual rhythmic action combined with the chanting of a spell illustrate the repetitive and obsessive behaviors so commonly enacted by an individual engaged in dieting. The words used in the spell are carefully chosen to show the nature of dieting. “In a healthy way”: when I diet the process is extremely unhealthy. No matter what diet it is (I have tried countless diets over the last 20 years), the restriction of quantity or entire food groups ends up being a destructive process to my body. I experience a foggy brain, hunger pain, nausea, weakness, depression, irritability, and I tend to isolate myself socially. Inevitably, I end up gaining back all the weight I had lost, usually more than I had started with. “Calmly, easily, without obsession”: my mental state during a dieting phase is turbulent, self-absorbed, obsessive, and self-destructive. Nothing matters but weight loss.

A spell demonstrates the wishes of the spell-caster. Usually the spell is cast as a last resort or where no other solutions to a problem are available. This piece shows the anguish in the mind of a chronic dieter. After many years of trying desperately to lose weight I decided to make one last ditch effort with a ritual spell.

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armour.jpg
armour2.jpg
08Numina's World.jpg
09Numina's Worldedit.jpg
10Numina's World 2edit.jpg
Fat Armour
Fat Armour

Fat Armour, denim, expanding foam, salt dough, blue sand, sequins, plastic jewels, tin, paint, pom-poms, and spray tan, 2017.

Fat Armour (detail)
Fat Armour (detail)

Fat Armour, denim, expanding foam, salt dough, blue sand, sequins, plastic jewels, tin, acrylic paint, pom-poms, and spray tan, 2017.

Fat Armour (detail of helmet)
Fat Armour (detail of helmet)

Fat Armour, denim, expanding foam, salt dough, blue sand, sequins, plastic jewels, tin, acrylic paint, pom-poms, and spray tan, 2017.

Numina
Numina

Mixed media and 3D printed Numina figurine

Numina Aerial
Numina Aerial

Aerial perspective of Numina in her home

Body Pillow (prop)
Body Pillow (prop)

Body Pillow (prop), denim, rhinestones, spandex, rope, foam stuffing, glue, thread, 46"x 43"x 23", 2017.

Numina (detail)
Numina (detail)

2017

Numina (detail)
Numina (detail)

2017

Adipose: Thick
Adipose: Thick

Thick, polyurethane foam, denim, satin, 2016.

Adipose Series Install
Adipose Series Install
Adipose: Big Girl
Adipose: Big Girl

Big Girl, polyurethane foam, denim, satin, 2016. 

Moon Pools
Moon Pools

Moon Pools, concrete, pebbles, sand, rocks, amethyst, rose quartz, mica, chamomile tea, green tea, almond oil, water, 2016.

Mound
Mound

Mound, two-part polyurethane foam, spray foam, spray chrome application, 2016. Installed as part of Pop Up Downtown 2016 in Regina, SK. 

Hook Island Sea Monster
Hook Island Sea Monster

Hook Island Sea Monster, mirrored plexi, wood, aquarium cling, adhesive, spotlights and colored bulbs, 2015

Champ Search
Champ Search

Champ Search, mirrored plexi, wood, aquarium cling, adhesive, 18”x16”x16”, 2016

TumbleBoo
TumbleBoo

TumbleBoo, wood, plexi, tumbleweed, fimo, lights, adhesive, dimensions variable, 2015

Close Encounters
Close Encounters

Close Encounters, install view, Estevan Art Gallery & Museum, September 11- October 30th 2015

TumbleBoo
TumbleBoo

TumbleBoo, wood, plexi, tumbleweed, fimo, lights, adhesive, dimensions variable, 2015

For Queequeg
For Queequeg

For Queequeg, mirrored plexi, wood, aquarium cling, adhesive, rock, 10”x12”x8”, 2016

The Whale: Exploring fatphobia through art in Pittsburgh
Grotesque in the Grotto
Grotesque in the Garden
Swimming in the Nostalgia of Imaginary Pies
Otherwordly Abundance
This Grotto Breathes
This Grotto Breathes Vimeo
Biliopancreatic Diversion
Last Ditch
IMG_20190708_082712_180.jpg
DSC_0723.jpg
16.jpg
12.jpg
06.jpg
19.jpg
18.jpg
01.jpg
04.jpg
armour.jpg
armour2.jpg
08Numina's World.jpg
09Numina's Worldedit.jpg
10Numina's World 2edit.jpg
Fat Armour
Fat Armour (detail)
Fat Armour (detail of helmet)
Numina
Numina Aerial
Body Pillow (prop)
Numina (detail)
Numina (detail)
Adipose: Thick
Adipose Series Install
Adipose: Big Girl
Moon Pools
Mound
Hook Island Sea Monster
Champ Search
TumbleBoo
Close Encounters
TumbleBoo
For Queequeg
The Whale: Exploring fatphobia through art in Pittsburgh
Grotesque in the Grotto
Grotesque in the Garden
Swimming in the Nostalgia of Imaginary Pies

Installed at Brew House Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA for Soma Grossa, curated by Anna Mirzayan, Nov-Dec 2022

Otherwordly Abundance
This Grotto Breathes

In the fifteenth century Nero’s Domus Aurea, a forgotten underworld palace was rediscovered beneath the streets of Rome. The rooms were ornately decorated with frescos, mosaics, and abundant gold leaf. In awe, artists would visit the site, becoming heavily influenced by the spectacle. Deeming the ruin ‘grottesca’ or ‘of the cave’, the imagery and word would eventually morph into the contemporary ‘grotesque’.1

Noticing that works depicting fat or transgressive bodies are often categorized as grotesque, Schneider decided to appropriate the root of the word (grotto-esque) to imagine a grotto made of squishy adipose-like bread. This Grotto Breathes is an immersive exhibition; imagery of cheap carbohydrates like bread and potato chips complicates understandings of fatness, food, and the modern-day understanding of the word grotesque. Simultaneously beguiling and threatening 2, we cannot help but be drawn to the grotesque. This murky fascination serves as the catalyst from which to renegotiate understandings of fatness through the architecture and slippery meaning of the grotesque (grotto-esque).

1,2 Squire, Michael. “Fantasies so varied and bizarre”: The Domus Aurea, the Renaissance, and the “grotesque”’, in M. Dinter and E. Buckley (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to the Age of Nero (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell), pp. 449. 2012.

This Grotto Breathes Vimeo

A bread making demo and discussion of the themes in the exhibition This Grotto Breathes installed at Neutral Ground Artist Run

Biliopancreatic Diversion

Small sculptures representing different types of bariatric surgeries.

Last Ditch

Last Ditch is a short video piece that shows my arms, chest, hands, and hair as I stand half immersed in a body of water. In the video I am holding a small ball of bread dough shaped like a belly. I gently submerge the dough belly into the water and begin to wash it while chanting the phrase: “This weight leaves me, in a healthy way. Calmly, easily, without obsession. From 248, to 172. May this spell, make it true.” As I wash the dough belly it dissolves in the water, creating a pale cloud of flour and salt. My incantation repeats deliberately, gaining speed slowly, accompanied by the sounds of the lapping water. Eventually the dough belly is completely dissolved in the water, I rinse my hands and flick off drops of water as the screen fades to black.

As with the Moon Pools, Last Ditch appropriates elements of witchcraft to speak to the nature of diet culture. A ritual rhythmic action combined with the chanting of a spell illustrate the repetitive and obsessive behaviors so commonly enacted by an individual engaged in dieting. The words used in the spell are carefully chosen to show the nature of dieting. “In a healthy way”: when I diet the process is extremely unhealthy. No matter what diet it is (I have tried countless diets over the last 20 years), the restriction of quantity or entire food groups ends up being a destructive process to my body. I experience a foggy brain, hunger pain, nausea, weakness, depression, irritability, and I tend to isolate myself socially. Inevitably, I end up gaining back all the weight I had lost, usually more than I had started with. “Calmly, easily, without obsession”: my mental state during a dieting phase is turbulent, self-absorbed, obsessive, and self-destructive. Nothing matters but weight loss.

A spell demonstrates the wishes of the spell-caster. Usually the spell is cast as a last resort or where no other solutions to a problem are available. This piece shows the anguish in the mind of a chronic dieter. After many years of trying desperately to lose weight I decided to make one last ditch effort with a ritual spell.

Fat Armour

Fat Armour, denim, expanding foam, salt dough, blue sand, sequins, plastic jewels, tin, paint, pom-poms, and spray tan, 2017.

Fat Armour (detail)

Fat Armour, denim, expanding foam, salt dough, blue sand, sequins, plastic jewels, tin, acrylic paint, pom-poms, and spray tan, 2017.

Fat Armour (detail of helmet)

Fat Armour, denim, expanding foam, salt dough, blue sand, sequins, plastic jewels, tin, acrylic paint, pom-poms, and spray tan, 2017.

Numina

Mixed media and 3D printed Numina figurine

Numina Aerial

Aerial perspective of Numina in her home

Body Pillow (prop)

Body Pillow (prop), denim, rhinestones, spandex, rope, foam stuffing, glue, thread, 46"x 43"x 23", 2017.

Numina (detail)

2017

Numina (detail)

2017

Adipose: Thick

Thick, polyurethane foam, denim, satin, 2016.

Adipose Series Install
Adipose: Big Girl

Big Girl, polyurethane foam, denim, satin, 2016. 

Moon Pools

Moon Pools, concrete, pebbles, sand, rocks, amethyst, rose quartz, mica, chamomile tea, green tea, almond oil, water, 2016.

Mound

Mound, two-part polyurethane foam, spray foam, spray chrome application, 2016. Installed as part of Pop Up Downtown 2016 in Regina, SK. 

Hook Island Sea Monster

Hook Island Sea Monster, mirrored plexi, wood, aquarium cling, adhesive, spotlights and colored bulbs, 2015

Champ Search

Champ Search, mirrored plexi, wood, aquarium cling, adhesive, 18”x16”x16”, 2016

TumbleBoo

TumbleBoo, wood, plexi, tumbleweed, fimo, lights, adhesive, dimensions variable, 2015

Close Encounters

Close Encounters, install view, Estevan Art Gallery & Museum, September 11- October 30th 2015

TumbleBoo

TumbleBoo, wood, plexi, tumbleweed, fimo, lights, adhesive, dimensions variable, 2015

For Queequeg

For Queequeg, mirrored plexi, wood, aquarium cling, adhesive, rock, 10”x12”x8”, 2016

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