Turns Out Human Fat Can Be Art (and Soap)

Last month, the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin launched a free lab called "Fat: It's Delicious." Wrapping up on June 29th, the exhibition is an exploration of "the good, the bad and beauty of fat." Delicious, indeed.

It's not all about art here. The science of fat, and the research into the compound, really takes center stage, as well as health data in its various forms. The experiments and artworks are many. And, yes, there is a Fight Club-esque piece about using human fat to render soap.

"Visitors have the opportunity to discover the surprising positives and alarming negatives of fat as we serve up some tasty treats in a peculiar diner experience that's chock-full of experiments, demos and tastings that explore the molecular and maleficent side of oils, fats, lipids and blubber," reads a description on the gallery's YouTube channel. "Fat makes donuts delicious, is vital in forming cell membranes, and since 1980 it is also responsible for 2.8 million deaths per year."

Rather fittingly, or unfittingly perhaps, the lab is divided into number of courses. There are starters, mains, a buffet, desserts, and specials—all cheeky names for a series of nine research experiments, 11 art installations, and a slew of other exhibitions and interactive demonstrations.

"Whet your appetite with our array of FAT-tastic starters," reads the Science Gallery website. "Begin with our specially selected tests that will shed light on everything from your BMI to your blood pressure."

"The FAT Platter," for instance, is a starter that allows visitors to partake in a "5-in-1 starter combo" that measures weight, body fat percentage, visceral fat rating, basal metabolic rate (BMR), and body mass index (BMI). For this exhibit, as with the others, the Science Gallery notes that visitor data is added to legitimate research into the way the human body uses fat.

With the mains, The Science Gallery requests visitors' "delicious data." This data becomes part of Irish scientific research into physiology, immunology, and neuroscience. It is quite literally a healthy spin on data, devoid of the reek of corporate data mining or surveillance.

Based purely on the site's description, a great main dish would have to be "Three Piece Suit." In this exhibition, visitors don a bariatric training suit (fat suit) used by medical staff to learn how to provide healthcare to obese patients.

"The suit (arms, legs and torso) mimics the proportions, shape and movement of a bariatric patient, allowing the wearer to experience the mobility restrictions such patients experience," reads the description. "Try on the suit and feel the effect of extra weight on your body."

The buffet portion of the lab includes a number of artworks that explore fats, oils, blubber, and lipids. Michelin star chef Kevin Thornton's "Pig Heads and Poitín" is an installation that features animal fat submerged in alcohol. Thornton, ever the chef, essentially marinates the animal fat throughout the exhibition's run, and will stage a big feast before the lab closes. The dining experience, with all of that human fat in residence, will no doubt be an appetizing event.

For the "Making Soap" installation, Miami-based artist Orestes De La Paz had liposuction performed on his own body, then created soap out of the fat. And, for his special, De La Paz invites visitors to take part in a hand-washing ritual using the soap rendered from his body fat. Hell, humans have washed their hands with rendered whale blubber and other animal fat for ages; why not take the practice to its ultimate conclusion?

The dessert portion of the lab features daily demonstrations and interactive explorations of fat. Visitors can try "Milk and Soap," which creates an "explosion of colour on a plate," with emulsion created from the hydrophobic nature of fatty acids.

"Flaming Fat" reminds us all of whale blubber's central role in the Industrial Age economy. In this installation, visitors come to understand the link between whale fat and candle wax, as well as see how long certain fats burn and why.

According to the Science Gallery, the specials come and go. The most interesting one seems to be "Canopé," which is described as a "pair of art deco arm chairs" designed by artist Gina Czarnecki. The artist re-upholstered the arm chairs, filling them with a "waxlike substance made from rendered fat, which softens up with body heat and moulds to the contours of the body." Whether intentional or not, it works as a great satirical feedback loop on how sedentary couch and chair life makes people fat.

But the gallery, and the lab's participating artists and scientists, really don't seem to be intent on frightening people with fatty horror stories. Fat has its biological purpose across multiple species; and humans, as much as we might try, can't and shouldn't separate ourselves from this biological function.

If anything, the lab is really about understanding how fat works both for and against us, while the data informs visiting novices and researchers about the finer points of the compound.