Jing Lu

The title Official Carnivals stems from Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin's quote, '...the unofficial carnival is people's second life, organized on the basis of laughter,' his Carnivalesque theory sees celebrations of the grotesque to challenge the class hierarchy, often initiated by the suppressed communities. In a contemporary context, carnivals are all organised top-down, typically on a yearly basis. I cannot stop questioning how distanced modern carnivals are from Bakhtin's examples. Central to the project is to merge the carnivals and religious rituals, it is rooted in my Buddhist background of attending the highly innovative, performative rituals in Tibet that I cannot see the two as separate. ​Taking Fat Man, the personification of Carnival, as the starting point, I began drawing traits of Fat Gods from different cultures and designed the Fat Man prototype from imagination. The project aims to celebrate carnivals like a religious ritual and the Fat Man as the god, hence showcasing the Fat Man's relics, wall murals and a site-specific temple of The Fat Man to give an immersive experience.