This performance is about nudity and truth in art. I recently gave
a lecture on The
Intervention of the Sabine Women, a painting by the French artist
Jacques-Louis David exhibited in 1799. This is a battle scene. David
originally planned to depict the two principal male figures dressed
in armour. In the finished work they appear naked, though still
surrounded by a crowd of largely clothed figures. In my lecture,
I suggested that David portrayed the two men naked because he thought
that clothes got in the way of our knowledge of human beings. He
believed that more information could be extracted about character
if people were depicted in the nude. Strip away their clothes, and
we come that much closer to the real 'them'. This presupposes that
people are best understood if we examine them in isolation, rather
than in relationship to each other.
Is this a valid
picture of the world we inhabit? Could it apply to other fields
of social interaction, such as the classroom? And is dress the only
barrier to true vision? In accordance with what I believe to have
been David's views, I have stripped my performance back to basics.
I shall deliver a shortened version of my lecture in the Slide Library.
Drawing on earlier experience as a life model, I shall do so without
clothes, though secluded from public view.
I shall speak
with the aid of a swazzle.
My swazzle will enable me to communicate merely by breathing, without
resort to the voice box and all the extraneous vocal colour which
that permits. The words themselves will be largely incomprehensible
as a result. But if clothes are mere social accretions, why not
words as well? Are they not latecomers on the scene of our consciousness?
The swazzle
is a venerable instrument, employed, its manufacturers claim, by
Punch and Judy men throughout the ages. It can also be dangerous
and even fatal in inexperienced mouths. The manufacturers recommend
that a swazzle be attached to a lapel by a thread in order to prevent
choking. Since I shall be delivering my paper in the nude, I shall
forego the security of lapels. This is swazzling without a thread
- swazzling on the edge. Auditors are therefore requested to maintain
a respectful silence throughout the performance. Any accidental
or unexpected noise such as laughter might destroy my concentration,
with unforeseeable but probably dire consequences. The reading will
last about five minutes, or until the lecturer runs out of breath.
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