Zerbe’s Work Included in “FAT: A Fat Liberation Gallery Show”
I’m so pleased to announce that 4 of my works have been chosen for inclusion in the upcoming exhibition “FAT: A Fat Liberation Gallery Show” at The Fishbowl in Seattle Washington.
The curatorial theme for the show is as follows:
“Fatness is beautiful. Fatness is powerful. Fatness is worthy.
The so-called “obesity epidemic” relies on outdated and racist metrics to justify systemic discrimination against fat people. From healthcare to social status, built environments to insurance policies, fat bodies are policed, medicalized, and marginalized. As diet culture resurges and media narratives revert to blatant fatphobia, fat individuals—especially QTBIPOC—are pressured to shrink, conform, and disappear.
FAT is a radical act of visibility. This exhibition unapologetically reclaims fatness as something to be honored, not erased. We are unapologetically owning and identifying with the word “fat” as an act of liberation and acknowledgment, rejecting diet culture and instead honoring fatness as a life source. We invite artists to share work that celebrates fat bodies, confronts the realities of fat oppression, and reimagines a world where fat people exist freely and joyfully.”
As a queer, neurodivergent, femme fat person, I felt particularly aligned with this theme. I submitted 4 works for consideration, and all 4 were selected for inclusion. These works, as well as many others by talented fat positive artists will be on display from May 2 to May 30 2025.
“Pound of Flesh” is a sculptural diptych that challenges the narrative that weight loss equates to freedom. These fleshy glass forms resemble the rubber “fat models” used in doctors’ offices, evoking how the medical industry pathologizes fatness. One sculpture features Ozempic drug facts, referencing the current craze for pharmaceutical thinness; the other is bound in measuring tape, a reminder that shrinking doesn’t equal healing. Both remain misshapen and raw, speaking to the cycles of weight loss, trauma, and erasure fat people endure.
Fat, Femme, Full of Shit Limited Edition Screen Print is a tongue-in-cheek screen print featuring a walrus in lesbian pride colors. The print embraces fat embodiment as both playful and political, rejecting shame and leaning into identity with unapologetic humor. The walrus—often used as a fat slur—becomes a proud emblem of fat femme resilience.
CONTROL Series Diptych: These close up self-portraits show the way control garments deform, contort, and harm the body.The stigma of size and fatness is so prominent in our culture, that many women subject their bodies to this type of physical restraint everyday, in an effort to occupy less space.The bruises and indentations left behind reveal the physical cost of conforming to beauty ideals marketed as “health.” This series exposes the quiet violence of everyday body policing.
CONTROL Video Performance: This video documents a performance in which I layer increasingly restrictive shapewear garments. As each layer compresses my body further, I struggle to breathe and move, culminating in a frantic removal of the garments to reclaim breath and bodily autonomy. This performance emphasizes the absurdity and pain of trying to disappear inside one’s own skin.
Together, these works honor fatness as lived experience, as grief, as joy, as resistance. They challenge viewers to see the ways fat bodies are disciplined—through medicine, media, fashion—and invite reflection on how we might instead celebrate fatness as whole: powerful and worthy.
This show is a radical act of visibility, and I am proud to offer these works as testament to the power and truth of fat liberation.
