Text by CLOT Magazine
The infamous ‘Monster of Whitechapel’, a 130-tonne ‘fatberg’, is a huge clump of oil, rubbish and waste which block up the sewers below the city and was wrestled from the bowels of east London. Taking the ‘Monster of Whitechapel’ as an inspiration, the experimental critical art and design duo, Thought Collider, examines during 3 Days of Fat what we perceive as non-functional biological waste material of human body: fat.
3 Days of Fat builds on Fatberg, an ongoing artistic research project developed by Mike Thompson (half of Thought Collider) and Arne Hendriks, focused on constructing a floating island of fat. 3 Days of Fat draws on the latest research from King’s College London’s Department of Nutritional Sciences into saturated fat and the food industry’s novel fat interesterification process. Over these three days, the ‘fatberg’ – a floating island of fat suspended within its own tank – will be grown at King’s College London’s Arcade at Bush House, they told us.
Exhibitions, live experiments, performances and discussions will occur at The Arcade at Bush House. The best known to CLOT Magazine readers among the participants is artist and founder of Faber Futures Natsai Audrey Chieza, who is participating in a public brainstorm exploring fat’s role in life and ecology on Wednesday, 10 October. Professor Richard Evershed, Professor Snezhana Oliferenko, and Dr Jeremy Carlton will join Chieza. Then on Thursday, 11 October, artist Alan Warburton will be joined by Dr Grace Williams and dancer Krysten Resnick to explore the fat’s role in health and beauty, while on Friday, 12 October, it is time to explore fat’s role in energy. From Somerset House Studios, Lucy Sanderson will join Thomas Fudge, Adrienne E. Treeby, and Professor Mike Michael.
