The “fat ladies” of Arzu ATAMAN

Interview by Vera Siaterli

I first met Arzu in autumn, in Ankara. She is a successful ceramist in her country, and she loves Greece which she often visits. Company with her is pleasant and juicy. Shortly after the end of the Symposium, she come in the beginning of November in Greece to meet me again, and I asked her to speak to our feminist website, tomov.gr (meaning the purple colour) about her work, how she was inspired and how she ended up making her fat ladies!

When I started making my “fat ladies with swimming costumes”, I was living in a summer town on the Aegean coast of Turkey.

The constant subject of conversation, especially in the summer time was always about being on a diet. How to lose weight, which swimming costume fitted best, etc.

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I was against having these conversations.

When you watch TV they’re always talking about this subject. Newspapers and media in general force people to be slim with constant articles and images, but in real life some people are slim and some are not.

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Women worry too much about weight related issues, while men are comfortable with their weight.

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Why should we as women be so worried and obsessed? I started to make happy, relaxed women in a caricatured way, wearing colorful swimming costumes, which show their bodies freely and in a non judgmental way.

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Until now everybody’s first question has been “why are they fat?” This question makes me even more determined to continue working on them as fat women. “Why not?”

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Why are people so interested in other people’s appearance? We can have more interesting subjects to discuss as being overweight is not the end of the world.

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I made “fat men fishing”, there was no problem with their appearance. No one questioned their weight. Then I started to make chess figures “women against men”.

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I must admit I really enjoyed making them. So, now my ladies are chubby and happy and when they need love, I make fat men for them.

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Being fat doesn’t make anyone less of a person; it’s how we represent our soul, mind and body through our lives that matters.
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