Forced To Be Fat - FMP

My concept is based around the juxtaposition of two societies in two cultural and how they perceive obesity. I’m looking at the Maruitania tribe in Africa where children are forced feed in order to find a husband by taking dangerous animal growth hormones to fulfill men’s love for larger females. This is because obesity is seen as a sign of wealth and big is believe to be beautiful. I’m comparing this to how obesity is seen to be something to be ashamed of in western society and men who have a fat fetish. I will look at artist such as Jenny Saville as she explored the human body by folding and mutilating fatty tissue as she said “I like to the down and dirty side of things” which I also want to portray. In terms of the process in which I’m going to work in I’m going to look at artist such as Philippe Pasque and Paul Wright as their work is very abstract and expressive. Some processes I may explore in order to portray my version are heat pressing and marbling to build interesting textured layers, exploring range of paint medium in an expressive approach, to name a few. I want to be very expressive and explore the idea of laying and freedom. Today is the first day of starting my project so I started off by making initial research. I've looked looking into the Maruitania tribe and found out a lot of interesting facts. I've started to make an emotional connection to the subject as I've found out facts which I find highly disturbing. The issue within the tribe is accepted as the norm although it is life-threatening. The issues is compared to what happens to animals which is never a good comparison. As well as looking deeply into the tribe I've made a range of moodboards to visually show my concept and the forms of research and inspiration.  I've also made an timetable for the next two weeks to ensure I stay on track and to push me further as it will show me the minimum i should be achieving everyday. I'm feeling very positive so fair as this is an independent project I am self lead which means I'm able to be free and explore something that really interests me. As well as making a timetable I have planed to interview a few male (African) adults as a form of research.