Tackling the XXL size problem in cities

This art show, instead of elevating viewers, educates them on gluttony, excessive body weight and the consequent health-related problems.

The exhibition, which is being showcased at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat from Monday, depicts 50 paintings, sketches and sculptures by Jagadish Kadur, a Chikmagalur-based artist.

“When I first came to Bangalore seven years ago, I saw people, especially women, who were overweight and looked unhealthy. I began probing the issue and found out that it was an urban issue,” said Kadur.

He began researching on why people took to obsessive eating habits and how they put on weight.

“For me, it took nearly five years to understand the phenomenon. I used to talk to doctors and also people who were overweight,” he said.

His obsession to help people reduce weight and gain health began at home with his wife, who was suffering with weight issues.

“He used to ask me questions and keep telling me to eat less and be active. Finally, he took me to a doctor and we found out that I had thyroid gland problems, which had resulted in my weight issues. I finally started to take treatment and in two months, I lost seven kilograms,” said Flora JK, Kadur’s wife.

Kadur began taking pictures and made a collage of photographs depicting the city with obese women.

“I almost got beaten up by women when they saw me taking their photographs. I had to explain to them and show my photos to make them agree to pose,” he said.

Linking obesity to people’s lifestyle in the city, Kadur has made 19 line drawings, 23 paintings and eight sculptures.

“In the city, we are all dependent on cars, bikes and buses or autorickshaws. In villages, even today, women work in fields and eat healthy food like ragi or jowar, which have low fat content and lot of protein,” he said.

“In the city, people are lazy to cook and end up eating junk food with high contents of fat leading to heart ailment and other health-related problems,” he added.

The exhibition is also part of awareness creating programme on obesity free Body Mass Index which gives accurate figures of all the issues one may be facing.

“We can tell how over weight or underweight a person is along with other issues the person may be facing like metabolism.
This will tell a person how they can improve their health and lead a healthy lifestyle,” Flora said.