Fattylympics Street Art Coming Your Way!

Pivo has made some beautiful street art for the Fattylympics and has kindly made the images available for people to download, colour and paste up. Aren't they gorgeous! There will be more images as the Fattylympics draw closer. Please print and share them where you see fit. Pivo says: "The files are A3 but people will be able to scale them down to A4 if that's as large as they can print."

Pivo continues:

"In a nutshell, I make life size portraits of people that are a response to the things that concern me and put them up on the streets where anyone can see them. Although I don't like what the concept of street art has come to stand for, I do still think it's an amazing format to challenge the use of public space and break down the barriers between art in galleries and the places real people inhabit. I founded a collective called the Caged Bird Club to put exhibitions up in the streets and celebrate the work of all the untrained but highly creative folks out there. I also design posters for other artist collectives and am interested in working with activists to develop graphics that help spread the word about things they are working on.

I live in East London but it was my friend in America who brought the Fattylympics to my attention. I was so excited to see that people were doing something that touches on all the things that terrify me about the You Know Whats (body fascism, rigid gender distinctions, gentrification or outright social cleansing, the total repression of dissent, corporate dominance, nationalism, the list unfortunately goes on) and when it was clear that it was being done in a satirical way, I immediately signed myself up.

The participatory and non-competitive nature of the Fattylympics made me think that I should incorporate some of those good DIY values into what I was able to offer. I will be creating a series of posters with all different types of people on them that people can download, colour in their own distinctive style and display in their windows, offices, schools or wherever. My hope is that they can be a way for us to proudly proclaim that actually we'd rather live our lives based on cooperation, community and amateurish fun in East London (kind of like we did back when celebrities didn't live here and nobody gave a shit about us).

Have fun colouring in!"

Pivo Fattylympics Street Art - glasses (.pdf, 414kb)

Pivo Fattylympics Street Art - hat (.pdf, 385kb)

Check out more of Pivo's work here: http://andsomeplyers.blogspot.co.uk

Where We're At

It's 83 days to go until the Fattylympics. 83, as you will know, is an auspicious number, according to Wikipedia it is the natural number following 82 and preceding 84. Whoo! Hot stuff!

This is where we're at:

Lots of people have volunteered including a brilliant musician, who has offered to compose the Fattylympics Anthem; someone in Germany who is going to make some bunting; people who want to document the day; people who want stalls; someone who is making gorgeous posters; builders and makers of all stripes. We have an official Fattylympics Torch on the way, and medals made of doughnut hair forms, and wooden disks. Kay and I have been planning the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and we might just have enough events, more about them later. We have sublime Fattylympics mascots in the form of Egg'n'Spoon, custom Fattylympics sweatbands, and we've bought insurance too.

There's still room for more volunteers, why not offer your services?

The bad news is that we realised that the Fattylympics clashes with Pride, and probably some other things too. This is a shame. But we've decided to keep going because not everyone likes Pride, not everyone is gay, lesbian, bi or trans (true!), and maybe at least some people will prefer to be hanging out in a park in East London messing around with us.

In other news, a group of fat people in Los Angeles are going to organise their own mini sister-event in solidarity. The Fattylympics is an international affair! More about that when we have pics and video.

Finally, there's The Weigh In, a new fat-friendly social space that takes place in London once a month. Come along, no doubt there'll be some Fattylympics talk there later this week.

Over and out.

Make Fattylympics Medals!

The Fattylympics embraces a philosophy of non-competiveness. Everybody who takes part or comes to the event will win something, there won't be any losers because, frankly, pretty much every one of us already feels like a loser in the face of the You Know Whats, whether it's through gentrification, the glorification of some bodies over others, nationalism, or simply having every useful amenity in your neighbourhood transformed into an estate agent. We know that hosting a non-competitive sporting event for fat-friendly losers is heresy and we are quite happy about that.

In order to facilitate this non-competitive ethic, the Fattylympics needs a ton of medals for everyone. We will also be awarding extra-fancy Medals of Merit to people who make a special effort in some way. This could include making tea for people, wearing an extravagant outfit on the day, taking part in an event with extra gusto, supporting the Fattylympics in some amazing way, it could be anything. Fattylympians are also encouraged to cheat and bribe their way to a Medal of Merit, just like the real You Know Whats.

This is where you come in. PLEASE MAKE SOME FATTYLYMPICS MEDALS! LOADS OF THEM!

It does not matter if you've never made anything in your life before, or if you can't draw or have no skills at crafting, we like this kind of stuff.

Here's the brief:

• Medals can be made of any material but must be wearable so therefore not too heavy or dangerous (no sharp edges, for example)
• They must say 'Fattylympics' on them somewhere
• They must not depict anything likely to offend and should be designed in line with Fattylympics values. Non-competitive themes are especially welcome
• Medals can be pinned or worn around the neck. If the latter, make sure the ribbon is long enough for even the fattest neck.
• Make as few or as many as you like
• Anyone anywhere can make medals, you don't have to attend the Fattylympics. Feel free to invite your friends round to have a medal-making party.

When you have made medals, please email beefergrrl@hotmail.com for details of how to get them to us.

THANK YOU!