The Naked Neighbour
2024In a class of 1 instructor and 3 attendees, all of them strangers to me, I
posed nude for 2 hours as a life drawing model. The participatory
performance simulates the life-drawing class and reframes the
classroom as a site of relational exchange as opposed to artistic
technicalities.
The class was advertised to the public as free of charge, open to all skill levels and hosted on the Michaelis campus, a Fine Art university. It was instructed by Katherine Bull, an established practicing artist and my lecturer, who operated under the pseudonym Claire Hyde. She facilitated the session under careful instructions and specifications stipulated in a collaborative agreement between the two of us.
The advertisement yielded 3 guests, unaware of the artwork they were participating in.
The class was advertised to the public as free of charge, open to all skill levels and hosted on the Michaelis campus, a Fine Art university. It was instructed by Katherine Bull, an established practicing artist and my lecturer, who operated under the pseudonym Claire Hyde. She facilitated the session under careful instructions and specifications stipulated in a collaborative agreement between the two of us.
The advertisement yielded 3 guests, unaware of the artwork they were participating in.
For the duration of the class, I adopted a series of
poses as Claire Hyde guided the group through a series of timed
drawings. The performance does not divert much from the traditional
life drawing class aside from the unconventional prompt that
instructed attendees to write 3 words about the model's appearance,
demeanour or personality at the beginning and end of the session.
The artwork employs this experiential procedure as the groundwork for its manifestation: a series of solicited commentary from attendees coupled with the model's written analysis of each attendee. This intervention disrupts the one-dimensionality of the gaze, emphasizing the dynamic as one of mutual vulnerability and responsibility, and thus recontextualises the microcosm of the classroom as a site of both artistic and social inquiry.
The artwork employs this experiential procedure as the groundwork for its manifestation: a series of solicited commentary from attendees coupled with the model's written analysis of each attendee. This intervention disrupts the one-dimensionality of the gaze, emphasizing the dynamic as one of mutual vulnerability and responsibility, and thus recontextualises the microcosm of the classroom as a site of both artistic and social inquiry.