{"id":33516,"date":"2016-05-03T16:36:57","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T22:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=33516"},"modified":"2020-02-11T09:40:12","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T15:40:12","slug":"fat-phobia-at-art-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/fat-phobia-at-art-access\/","title":{"rendered":"Fat Phobia at Art Access"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The world is awash with proverbial sayings about beauty \u2014 it\u2019s in the eye of the beholder or only skin deep. Such notions seem at odds, however, with our society\u2019s prescription for a monolithic kind of beauty, a preoccupation for which women across the generational spectrum have fallen victim. Art Access\u2019 latest exhibition \u201cFat Phobia,\u201d curated by artist Carol Berrey, directly confronts society\u2019s thwarted view of femininity, addressing both its underlying harm and the beauty that exists in spite of it. The show, featuring 16 female artists, confronts this timely and often-discussed topic through a variety of artistic mediums and conceptual lenses. What results is a highly biographical view of how this issue affects artists and has the potential to affect women anywhere and everywhere.<\/p>\n

In 2016, the critique of Western society\u2019s obsession with a virtually unattainable standard of beauty has become commonplace. The notion that such standards of beauty are harmful is a seemingly universal contention, evidenced by endless discussion of the matter in virtually all communicative mediums. Such widespread acknowledgement of the problem, however, leads one to ask, how have we not found a solution?<\/p>\n

A work like Jay Rieser\u2019s \u201cFat Collage\u201d presents viewers with a cacophony of popular imagery, meant to highlight the societal schizophrenia of female existence within the public sphere. Terrece Beesley\u2019s lively watercolor paintings weave a thread, uniting past and present, revealing the darkness of traditional notions of femininity. In aptly titled works such as \u201cFunhouse Mirror,\u201d \u201cShe Dreamed of Breathing,\u201d and \u201cThe Photoshop Diet,\u201d Beesley calls attention to exclusive attention paid to corporeal existence, which comes at the exclusion of everything else. In a news release, Beesley affirms this idea stating, \u201cEvery society finds ways of torturing its women. One method of torture is demanding perfection.\u201d<\/p>\n