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Can You Appreciate Art Better in the Buff?
Looking at art is an individual act. Just as
wine connoisseurs ritually sniff, swirl, slurp, and (sometimes) spit, I enact my
own curious dance before an artwork: moving in, moving out, looking from the
side, pausing, moving on, and (sometimes) returning to linger. But the idea of
touring a museum or gallery au naturel
never occurred to me for all the (to me) obvious reasons. Australian artist Stuart Ringholt, however, is leading
tour groups on a nighttime nude adventure through the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia
with the idea that shunning one’s clothing can simultaneously be a shunning of
one’s inhibitions. With no barrier between you and the art, can you actually
appreciate art better in the buff? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "
Can You Appreciate Art Better in the Buff?"
[Image: Stuart Ringholt. Preceded by a tour of
the show by artist Stuart Ringholt 4-5pm (the artist will be naked. Those who
wish to join the tour must also be naked. Adults only), 2010. Photo:
Nick McGrath. Courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.]
2 comments:
Dropping one’s knickers MAY promote a dropping of one’s inhibitions, in looking at art. But for most it would be too distracting. Who is going to focus on what Rembrandt had to say about 17th century Dutch religion when a man with the cutest arse is standing just a metre away?
Maybe some people need to drop their clothes to feel/be naked in front of Art. Others need a drink or a smoke to relax and forget about inhibitions. That's exactly what Art does to me: it voids me of any previous content of time/space/bullshit and fills me up with whatever Great Art is telling me in that moment. So I could wear an astronaut costume or be completely naked, Art does the same thing to me. It's a feeling of surrender like very few other situations in my life request of me.
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