"Fat Jap" refers to Fat Japanese. The portrait of the man found in these artworks is fabricated from a variety of mediums. He is a fictional character whose origins and appearance stem from the pictorial stylisation apparent in the Japanese graphic style called 'Manga'.
Pearman's fictional character is smart, professional, slick, and fat. He symbolises the hard working office man who is suited, has kept hair, conveys a traditional masculine presence and yet strives not to become obsolete and invisible.
Using materials such as plaster casts, plywood and painted glass, Pearman represents the 'Fat Jap' in different levels of transparency. Is he becoming the invisible man?
Tom has undertaken many public art projects combing the mediums of silk-screen printing with a modern process of stained glass, to provide an architectural permanence. This process provides extremely durable glass artworks made up of dynamic forms and vibrant blocks of colour using transparent and opaque fired pigments.
Related pages 
Selected public art glass commissions
