stolen words/ inktober culmination/ public space art
I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before, but when I saw it for the first time a fire of anger started inside me. It was a sticker on the vending machine near the stairwell, and the grey oval proclaimed in clean font “CALORIES COUNT- Check then Choose.” I went up to the machine and peeled the sticker off, stuck it in my notebook, and went about my day trying to regain my balance.
I am very lucky to be in an almost fully recovered state from my disordered eating. There was a time in my life when the sticker would have resonated with me deeply. There was a time when almost every thought I had involved counting calories, weighing food options as if they were ethically good or bad. I was in a pit of obsession for many years to varying degrees. I was very lucky to read the book Intuitive Eating and adopt the principles and recover quite a bit. Not everyone is so lucky.
“5-10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease and 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years.” – https://www.mirasol.net/learning-center/eating-disorder-statistics.php
The words on the vending machine sticker blew a hole in my newly developed positive self perception, I was launched back to the darker time, feeling how it used to feel. This feeling was like a grenade exploded in front of me, which inspired my first inktober sketch. I decided to take something hurting me and rework it into something powerful.
I began thinking how prevalent and deadly the phase of the sticker is when I found the second sticker. Calorie counting is primarily used by people who have eating disorders or who are dieting, creating unhealthy mental obsessions. Dieting is truly negative, as it destroys people’s innate abilities to regulate hunger. I hate how companies target people’s insecurities to try to promote their products like this. Using the original shape of the sticker to inform the piece, I was inspired to draw a skull that cannot see, with rotting teeth.
Since the skull image was more accessible visually than the grenade, I decided to put it back where I found it. I added the text “deadly belief” to create dissonance within the work. I have found and replaced 3 stickers and will continue to find and replace any more I see.
My goals with doing this project are that:
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- Someone reconsiders the normalcy of calorie counting
- Someone will think about the student who created the image, who was hurt by the sticker
- Someone will consider the students with eating disorders on campus
- Someone will see the image and be confused by it, think about it for a while
What an important project you are embarking on. This: “5-10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease and 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years.” is horrifyng.
I think it’s especially important at a women’s college to take on such a guerilla project, because women are disproportiantely the target of such a campaign.
I’d love to see this article in the Profile–the (relatively low Profile) student newspaper, or some sort of news bulleting that links to your post.
I have a friend in a wheelchair who carries a tire deflator mechanism with her (the small pointed thing that presses on the air valve to let air out) and when she sees people parked in the disabled spaces who are not disabled, she wheels up to the car and systematically deflates all the tires. It’s a small action that makes her feel empowered, points out the problem and appropriately focuses her anger.
I wonder if you might get stickers made that you carry with you for whenever you see such a sticker, and can then replace it with your important and creative art action? Also, keeping sight of the times you see and do the action–record it here. It could just be, date, place, and then an image. Thanks for sharing this.
https://www.busybeaver.net/custom-stickers
(a good group to use)