Room With A Nude

A Room with a Nude is a pitch dark room with a sign reading "Do not touch the nude performer" outside. A 2 door darkened corridor at the entrance ensures zero visibility inside.
Visitors are invited to enter the room & imagine what a "nude" is when you can't see it. The dark room in which other visitors & a nude performer are at an unknown distance from one another creates a tension regarding personal space & sexuality.
This installation confronted the performers with the question of becoming an object. Prior to the show the performers discussed how they plan to react to the audience. One of the male performers opted to meditate & ignore the audience even if verbally addressed. The female performer opted to try & convince the audience to get undressed too.
"As a performer I wondered if the dark would make me feel more vulnerable or secure in the nude. However as the performance unfolded the focus in the room turned from nudity to darkness. At one point a group of people entered the room and confronted me about the sign outside complaining that it is limiting their experience. I defended the decision explaining in the dark the need to protect the performers from disguised harassment. All through this confrontation a silent figure was holding my chest from front & back feeling my lungs tremble as I responded. All I could discern about the figure is that it was taller than I." - The artist

Performaces by Cyrus Von Hochstetter & Eszter Ozsvald
Presented at Scholes 319, New York, 2011