Persephone Thacker, In/Visible (Mirror), 2022, mixed media
Persephone Thacker, emerging local artist and textile designer, shared her own unlearning of a lifetime of internalised fatphobia and aims to bolster fat representation with this exhibition of wearable textile works and digital images.
“Existing while fat is a constant contradiction. It’s an unusual blend of hypervisibility, yet being completely overlooked. It’s being told to better your health so as not to burden the healthcare system, yet continually having concerns dismissed as ‘obesity’ by medical professionals. Told to exercise, yet laughed at in the gym. Being fetishised, yet your own sensuality is viewed as disgusting. Seeing companies spruik body inclusivity, yet only stocking up to size 16.” - Persephone Thacker.
Thacker’s artworks and textiles drew upon the concept of being 'hidden in plain sight.’ The works played with pleating, quilting, gathering and camouflage techniques, referencing a dynamic fullness and diversity of form to signal the process of becoming wholly and unapologetically visible as an artist and wearer. They reclaimed this figurative space in saturated colour, addressing fatphobia and lipoedema - a misunderstood and commonly misdiagnosed chronic disorder.
Maroondah Federation Estate Gallery, 32 Greenwood Ave, Ringwood, 3134, View map
32 Greenwood Ave , Ringwood 3134
Free
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