2015

I spend a lot of time trying to make myself seem smaller. As a woman I am taught to be petite as to be more desirable. As a fat person I am taught to shrink myself down to literally and physically fit myself into social situations. In “I Take Up This Much Space”  I use body tracing, a therapy technique often used to treat patients with eating disorders and body dimorphic disorder, I cover a wall in crude outlines of my body. I overlap them and position my body differently each time creating a bubble of personal space that is mine and only mine. I do this act as if to try to unlearn these socialized ideas of always needing to be smaller.  To create a body image based on my own validation and not the validation of another person. The act of tracing the outline of my body over and over serves as a reminder that I am a person. As a human I am allowed to be alive. I am allowed to take up space.