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girl fat Clare Lannan

Fri. October 29th 2021 - Thu. October 7th 2021 7pm - 5pm doors at 1pm
October 7th - 29th 2021
Opening night October 7th, 7-10pm
For full hours see thefiftyfifty.net
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Displayed together under the name “girl fat”, this ever-growing collection of sculptures combines stuffed, reconfigured nylon forms with ready made objects. The work is never ending and always in progress, a continuing and necessary inquiry into the lived experiences of deviant bodies, specifically looking at fatness and fat bodies. Harkening to traditions in assemblage, the work is always in a state of revision and change, making it possible to give shape to all the possible incarnations of “girl fat”.
At its core, this collection of work is an exploration of fatness and the becoming of an ‘unfit body’. It seeks to answer questions around anti-fat socialization, and to address how weight stigma is disseminated within our social arenas. The work looks at the familial relationships that form the base of our bodily perceptions, and makes known the generational trauma that insidiously shapes the construction of our individual character. Each piece seeks to find the space between overt empathy and quiet disgust in order to cultivate and forge new understandings within body liberation.
These objects are an exploration of fatness as a physical experience and a lived understanding: as felt and remembered through the eyes of a young girl.
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Clare Lannan is an artist and educator; never far from home and grateful to work on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen peoples, in the Songhees Nations of Turtle Island. A self professed flesh tourist, she creates work to take up space: physically and visually. Lannan uses the transitional nature of memory, personal folklore, and publicly shared collective archives (essays, photo sets, zines) to shape an understanding of how ‘othered’ bodies are forced to navigate this world without the same access as their ‘normal’ peers. Her curiosity about creating and drawing from lived experiences is formed through a lens of social awareness, attempting to lay shape to the intergenerational and societally born trauma that is inflicted upon marginalized people. Lannan works as a public school teacher and university instructor, and recently completed a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Victoria. She believes that art should be accessible in all forms, and is committed to finding ways through art and education to counter dominant social narratives that centre damaging, hegemonic ideals.
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the fifty fifty arts collective is comprised of individuals living and working on unceded and occupied First Nations Territories, specifically the lands of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, as well as the W̱SÁNEĆ, Sc'ianew and T'Souke First Nations.
The programming space itself is situated on Songhees and Esquimalt Territory but engages with individuals and communities across Turtle Island.
As a collective we endeavour to deepen our own understandings of how we are implicated in the history and in the present ongoing project of settler colonialism. As members of the fifty fifty arts collective we continually responsibilize ourselves to the complex kind of space that is the fifty fifty which hosts and facilitates the dissemination of the ideas and work of others.
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Accessibility Information:
The entrance to the fifty fifty arts collective is wheelchair accessible, however, the door is not automatic and we have no washrooms on site. A more comprehensive statement regarding our accessibility is in progress, specific questions or requests regarding accessibility can be sent to [email protected]
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Funded by CRD Feed the Arts