People manoeuvre into position as they take part in Sea of Hull by Spencer Tunick, Saturday July 9, 2016
The classic art nude, as painted or in performance, is the single figure. But group nudity, which has less aesthetic-erotic and more anarchic-social import, seems very much on trend at the moment. Veteran of the form Spencer Tunick recently had 3000 naked people paint themselves in marine blues in Hull for his contribution to the port’s programme as UK City of Culture next year. Body painting was very much central to the 1980’s performances of the Neo-Naturists, currently celebrated at Studio Voltaire in a suitably cacophonous installation with five films and two slides shows operating simultaneously. Vitrines of other work, documentation and memorabilia seek to situate their ludic silliness: equal parts a way of showcasing Wilma Johnson and the Binnie sisters’ painting skills; making a relishably provocative impact; and, using the personal body as a metaphor for the social body, pointing to the need to free up Thatcherite Britain. One of the most prominent works in Tate Modern’s newly opened wing has much the same ramshackle spirit: Marvin Gaye Chetwynd’s 2008 film ‘Hermitos Children, the pilot episode’ plays on 32 screens simultaneously, Watching from a sprawling beanbag made from the costumes in the film, you see performances strung into no kind of sensible narrative whuch concludes with ten minutes of naked frolics such as would have done the Neo-Naturists proud. Could this trend for communal self-discovery through nakedness be just what we need to banish the Brexit Blues?
Neo Naturists, Black Rapport Day, Thames Beach Wapping, 17 July 1982 (Jennifer Binnie, Wilma Johnson, Nico Holah and Bruce Lacey) – Courtesy of the Neo Naturists Archive
Marvin Gaye Chetwynd’s ‘Hermitos Children, the pilot episode’, 2008
Most days art Critic Paul Carey-Kent spends hours on the train, traveling between his home in Southampton and his day job in London. Could he, we asked, jot down whatever came into his head?
