Alberich Matthews' Photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alberich/show/with/62843447/

Video: Naturists Visit a Dutch Museum

A group of naturists visit the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Video here.

The Face is Present

Artist Marina Abramović is present pretty much all of the time at her current exhibition at MOMA. She sits at a table while people one by one take the seat opposite her, and they share a moment, a moment which is captured on live video stream as well as on Flickr. Truly an inspired idea.

With all the emphasis society puts on body parts, something which nudism/naturism tries to negate, this art project shows emphatically that the most intimate part of the human body is the face.

Bingo Vigilantes

A woman's art show in Bakersfield has been vandalized after a bingo group sharing the hall complained about the nudity on display.

After she hung some of the initial art, the Tuesday night bingo group complained, she said. So (curator Nyoka) Jameson took sheets of plastic to the hall at 2801 F St. the next day and covered up the pieces she thought would be most offensive. Apparently that wasn’t enough, she said.

On Saturday, when Jameson returned to the hall, she was horrified when she entered the building.

The plastic had been removed from several pieces. Some of the art was missing from the walls and others were missing from the building entirely. She found some of the art stuffed into the equipment closet, and one large piece in the bathroom.

Beautiful Bathers

Via Body Impolitic comes this link to the award-winning work of photographer Jennette Williams. From the artist's note:

When I reflect on the photographs, these quiet moments of shared sensual experience, of community, seem punctuated by an element of outrageousness. The sight of women unabashedly at ease in displaying their bodies transformed by age, circumstance, and gravity is hardly commonplace. This only happens when women are living in rather than fighting against their bodies.

Wow, that's a powerfully honest and astute statement. This is what nudists and naturists aspire to, a life where nudity can be commonplace, communal, natural, healthy, comfortable, ordinary, uninhibited, and for all ages. Bravo to Jennette Williams for her transformative work with the beautiful ladies in Budapest.

Good Nipple, Bad Nipple, Part Two

Via TERA comes this video of a woman posing topfree atop a public pedestal in London as part of Antony Gormley's art project "One & Other".

While Dr. Rapoport featured this story on the TERA website, he did so with reservations, and made the following comment on the video:

Ms. McDonald's performance, a mild version of what she probably does professionally, reinforced the automatic association of women's breasts with sexual display, which we have to get rid of.

Women should have the right to be without tops as much as men are, possibly more. But actions such as this undermine that goal, whatever their merit or demerit as performance.

While I agree with the essence of what Dr. Rapoport has to say, I feel that there are contradictions which need to be discussed. Yes, Naomi McDonald shakes her breasts and slaps her own behind in suggestive ways, taking her "performance" into something beyond traditional art, and into the realm of sleaze; however, if this were a man up there flexing his biceps and making his pecs dance, there would be no controversy. After all, men have been doing this sort of posing for many years, from ancient Greek statues through today's muscle magazines and pageants. Yet the moment a woman flaunts her body, people get upset and condemn her as an "exhibitionist", and accuse her of undermining women's equality.

Yes, because of society's double standard, a woman expressing her sexuality in public is not good for the topfree movement because our male-dominated legal system tends to pass more laws controlling female nudity whenever a nipple makes an appearance.

I certainly don't have an answer for this issue, and how it will eventually play out is beyond anyone's guess.

What I do know is that women's bodies have been used in fine art for as long as humans have been able to scratch images onto the walls of caves, and some of the greatest examples of the female form, such as Manet's "Olympia", Renoir's and Cezanne's bathers, Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", and so many other works freely celebrate the eroticism and sexuality of females, and the male infatuation with prostitution.

These works are mounted on museum walls without censorship for people of all ages to see and admire.

So when Ms. McDonald freely displays her body and sexuality, it's a time-honored tradition in fine art, merely taken from inside the art museum to the light of day. In addition, eroticism has been a component of ballet and other classic dance, completely acceptable on a stage illuminated with footlights, but somehow unacceptable in burlesque or strip clubs, or in the street. Society struggles with this issue, constantly defining and redefining what is or what is not pornographic.

It is probably a mistake to equate Naomi McDonald's public performance with topfreedom at all - it's more of a statement on art vs. pornography, and society's exploitation of the female body. Art should always push the envelope and get people stimulated emotionally and intellectually. In that respect, Ms. McDonald succeeded.

Australian Library Bans Innocent Photo of Children Playing

Reaching perhaps the peak of paranoia, a library in Australia pulled a photo from an exhibition fearing scrutiny in the wake of the recent controversy over Bill Henson nudes.

A mother herself the artists says "(...) if this keeps going in the same direction, it won't be long before our children will be required to wear concealing head scarves - whilst surfing obscene pornographic websites protected by the freedom of speech.

"As an artist, photographer and protective mother of two children I believe in protecting all children, but the law is silencing the wrong people and we are heading back to the dark ages."

UPDATE: The ban has been lifted after common sense prevailed.

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked

The Sunday Newds 1/18/09

• Plans for installing surveillance cameras on a nude beach in Australia have been scrapped in favor of an increased police presence to deter sexual behavior.
• An Irish woman recalls the "lady with a stick" who used unorthodox means to enforce dress codes in a church.

  My skirt had obviously risen just above my knees as I was sitting down. Our friend chastised me verbally for my immodesty in church. I tried to move away but she moved over after me and whacked my legs with her stick. My son took grave exception to this and bawled so I had to leave. I missed the whole event.

• The Birmingham Museum of Art is presenting Body Image: American Art and the Human Form through May 9, 2009.

  "The human body has been an important subject for artistic expression from prehistoric times," says Graham Boettcher, PhD, William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. "The most fundamental training for any artist long consisted of the study of anatomy and life drawing."

• Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel would gladly trade full frontal nudity for another Super Bowl ring, no questions asked.
• Strapped Los Angeles homeowners are opening their doors to movies, commercials and porn shoots to pay the mortgage. Amazingly, according to the IRS, if the shooting lasts less than 15 days it's tax free, so the government is subsidizing porn.
• A US couple has been released from a Brazilian jail pending trial. They have been accused of sexually abusing children at a "nudist colony".
• Oscar de la Renta says that Hillary Clinton is "prudish about the type of clothes she likes to wear."
• "Art jamming" is a group painting session in Ireland where an instructor brings all the needed materials to a home or place of business so people can exercise their creativity in familiar settings. The "art jam" can be arranged for private parties, corporate events and festivals, and for "hen parties" a nude male can be provided as a subject.

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked

The Weekend Newds 11/1/08

• Two Polish women have been put on trial for indecent exposure after they sunbathed topless on a Baltic Coast beach.
• The government is getting into the strip club business.
• A nude calendar hopes to raise awareness of global warming. "How do you grab somebody's attention?" asked Sigi Psimenos, Miss September. "You get a bunch of people together and have them take off their clothes." And if you're still hot, you can hire Symon Spinks of Spaulding Air Conditioning Services who is one of 12 businessmen in the UK who posed nude for a calendar supporting Cancer research. And don't forget to check out these calendar girls from Ulster.
• It is estimated that Pasco County has 12,000 "nude votes", and it is possible that the supervisor of elections will consider a clothing-optional polling place after redistricting in 2010.
• 54 percent of New Zealanders polled are in favor of nudity on designated beaches, and 29 percent think it should be allowed on all beaches.
• Sometimes nudists and army tanks co-exist on San Onofre beach.
• Women at Canada's nude Tower Beach are demanding more police presence to crack down on masturbating men.
• The recently passed anti-porn bill in Indonesia threatens to force some tribal natives to put on clothes.
• Caliente Resorts is on trial for bait-and-switch sales tactics.
• Sean Combs has released a family photo in which his two daughters are nude. It's a beautiful photo, but naturally there is plenty of fake moral outrage.
• Two photos depicting nude men won first and second place awards in the "Art for the Health of It" competition, but were denied a spot in the final display because the "subject matter was not appropriate".

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked

The Naked Eyeful

Andrew Stephens wonders why the public continues to be outraged by nude art.

Much is said and written about our increased visual literacy in an image-flooded culture but perhaps we are actually becoming less able to read images sensitively and accurately because the opportunity for serious contemplation has diminished? And perhaps we have trouble distinguishing photography - given its overwhelming currency - as an art medium? If these things are so, nudity in art might be easily and mistakenly conflated with sex - or with pornography...

"Nakedness is ubiquitous," writes (Ballarat Gallery curator Elizabeth) Cross - in fashion, advertising, beach culture and the cinema, let alone the vast and insatiable pornography industry. "Engulfed by the ambiguous presence of human flesh at every turn, we do not, cannot, come innocently to the experience of the naked body - if we ever did.

"And yet our naked bodies are our natural condition. Their depiction has the potential to express our fundamental selves, and even something we might count as divinity."

Pictured above: Duo 2008 by Sam Jinks

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked

The Figure Illuminated

From the press release:

Etherton Gallery is pleased to present The Figure Illuminated featuring the photographs of Flor Garduño, Alvin Booth and Ralph Gibson. The Figure Illuminated presents three reflections on the mysteries and wonders of the nude, featuring the monumental photographs of Flor Garduño’s sensuous women seen through the veil of magic realism; the erotically charged, abstracted bodies in Alvin Booth’s work, and Ralph Gibson’s deceptively simple, open-ended photographs that highlight tension, rhythm and vision. The exhibition opens on Saturday, September 13th with a reception, from 7:00 to10:00 pm. Etherton Gallery is located at 135 S. 6th Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85701. Regular business hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11am – 5pm and Thursday 11am-7pm. For more information please contact the gallery at (520) 624-7370 or info@ethertongallery.com.

Gallery website here.
Exhibit review here.

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked

The Weekend Newds 10/17/08

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