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3 Days of Fat

3 Days of Fat, a collaboration between Thought Collider, Arne Hendriks and the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King's, was a series of 'live' art-science experiments. The project focused on the construction of an island of fat to critically reflect upon our complex relationship with this material, what it is and what it might yet become.

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https://melbourne.sciencegallery.com/Photograph by Hanneke Wetzer

Fat. 'The' iconic substance of our time. It relates to life. It relates to health. It relates to energy, beauty, ecology and consumption. Fat today is not so much a description of material or size but a moral category tainted with criticism and contempt. But what is fat if its 'behaviour' becomes so unpredictable, overtaking not only our bodies but our systems? Do we still understand this substance?

In November 2017, the 130-tonne ‘Monster of Whitechapel’ was wrestled from the bowels of east London. This ‘fatberg’, a congealed mass of fat, wet wipes and nappies, stretched the length of two football pitches, taking workmen armed with shovels and high-powered jets three weeks of around the clock effort to extract.

The team later built an entirely new fatberg at Science Gallery Melbourne in 2019 as part of their Disposable programme.

 

 

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Part of the Arts in Society Innovation Scheme