The Shock of the Nude

NAKED OR NUDE (Kenneth Clark thought there was a difference), the human body has been a source of creative inspiration in all forms of visual art and performance, from painting and sculpture to theater, film, performance and body art, digital art, and live political activism. Recently, we have been...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Gay & lesbian review worldwide 2017-07, Vol.24 (4), p.15
Main Authors: Tsouvala, Maria, Savrami, Katia
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Audience
Body/Body Parts
Business
Choreography
Creativity
Dancers & choreographers
Duncan, Isadora (1878-1927)
Eroticism
Forecasts and trends
Human body
Modern dance
Modernism
Negotiation
Nude dancing
Nudity
Political activism
Politics
Power
Society
Theater
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Summary:NAKED OR NUDE (Kenneth Clark thought there was a difference), the human body has been a source of creative inspiration in all forms of visual art and performance, from painting and sculpture to theater, film, performance and body art, digital art, and live political activism. Recently, we have been experiencing an explosion of global protests in which activists have stripped themselves of clothing to draw attention to the vulnerability and power of the body in the social system we live in. [...]dance and sex may be conceived as inseparable even when sexual exploration is unintended." At a time when the entertainment industry had reduced the body to a fetish or a commodity, they sought to establish dance as a "noble" art form. Amelia Jones (2000), art historian, critic, and curator, observed: "The body, which previously had to be veiled to conform to the Modernist regime of meaning and value, has more and more aggressively surfaced during this period as a locus of the self and the site where the public domain meets the private, where the social is negotiated, produced and made sense of." The audience is faced with a circular stage on which, within the first four minutes, we witness a sadistic beating, rape, incest and death from a drug overdose. Final Thoughts Throughout this article we have discussed the purpose of nudity in avant-garde dance performances from a phenomenological point of view that approaches the human body as a social and historical agent of political activity.
ISSN:1532-1118