FAT

Date: 23 September 2000 - 7 January 2001

The London-based group FAT (Fashion Architecture Taste) had its first major exhibition in The Netherlands at Stroom in The Hague. For this very occasion FAT joined forces with the artists/filmmakers Owen Oppenheimer and John Hardwick in the creation of the video installation The Explorers, the shooting of which took place in August 2000.

The film features the city of The Hague, the miniature city of Madurodam and their inhabitants. The images are both staged and shot in real life. The events take place against a backdrop of famous tourist spots, whereby Madurodam, with its Dutch urban development highlights in miniature size, functions as a model of a society.

The multiple, fragmented views in 'The Explorers' contain many references to film conventions, both visually and narratively, commenting on well-known movie cliches like the road movie and the car chase, and stock movie characters like the vamp, the vampire, the love couple, the hooligan and the gorilla.

The videos vary in tone and atmosphere, shifting the spectator's point of view from neutral observer to apparent participant in the action, suggesting a sense of dislocation and unfamiliarity.

FAT is a company which explores the criteria of what is fashionable and what is good or bad taste in the fields of architecture and art and everything in between.
Their approach is a prime example of the latest trend which sees more and more contemporary artists and architects join forces with colleagues from other fields of the arts.
Some of FAT's most spectacular projects include the conversion of a conventicle (a secret church) in Amsterdam into the offices of the advertising agency KesselsKramer (1998); the trendy night club The Brunel Rooms in Swindon, England (1995); and Shopping (1999), for which 30 artists designed carrier bags for shops in Carnaby Street, London. Articles about these projects were published in magazines like The Face, Frame, i-D and Archis.

Stroom first came into contact with FAT, when they invited them to participate in the bicycle shed project Fiets&Stal. The creative spirits behind FAT are Sean Griffith (the Enforcer), Charles Holland (Sinbad the Pirateer of King's Cross) and Sam Jacobs (the Adolescent).