Completely Naked - Flashing Bodies Project

A trio consisting of artists Pau Ros and Pablo Goikoetxea plus project coordinator Pablo Goikoetxea, Completely Naked combine slick digital media and good old-fashioned let's-go-crazy happenings in an ongoing project which they've dubbed Flashing Bodies. There have been five 'actions' as they call them so far, each taking a different theme such as Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights or scenes from favourite cult movies. The work exists on three levels – first the happenings themselves (which look as if they are extraordinary, riotous, joyous occasions,) then short videos, and finally photographs, published in books and online galleries.

You'll find the videos on Vimeo, and they're well worth exploring, each being a beautifully crafted and smartly edited little gem of film-making. Uncharacteristically for art videos, there's nothing portentous about them; instead, they share a common thread of high spirits and – dare I say it – fun. The unique brilliance of this team is to give the impression that nudity is a form of dressing up, a game of charades played without clothes but with the help of the occasional wig or bird-mask.

Action Four, The Garden of Earthly Delights

Action Two, For Sale

The same spirit informs their still photography, which has all the elegant framing of something created painstakingly in the studio, but which yet resonates with any number of caught moments. The good-natured tenderness of their work means that they can skirt close to the sort of sexual frankness you might associate with pornography while retaining a feeling almost of innocence. There's also an attractive even-handedness, the camera responding with equal warmth to male and female, old and young.

Turning to the two examples shown here, the group shot from Action Four, The Garden of Earthly Delights benefits enormously from the models' response to what was clearly a deeply immersive experience. For the most part, their bodies show a wonderful relaxation. There's a dreamy, foamy slackness to the soft breasts and stomach of the female nude in the foreground and to the sprawling male figure behind with his thick midriff and lax genitals. In the second photograph – from Action Two, titled “For Sale” and offering a subversion of standard images of seduction - the two nudes are grouped intimately together. The detail of the male model's penis resting against the female model's thigh is something other artists might have shied away from, but in this context it seems like a natural gesture of affection and mutual confidence.

If you're interested in becoming a fan or a model, Completely Naked can be found on Facebook and on their own website. Also well worth checking out is their beautifully laid out online bookshop.

Photographs by kind permission of Pau Ros.

'Libido,' Dance Works Rotterdam

Morelle looks like a red devil, while Camarda's pale, ravaged figure, 

with her prominent hip bone and knotted arms, 

recalls the mannerist paintings of El Greco.

Morelle is a picture of force without traction, a man spinning his wheels, 

his fresh battered and scorched by his experiences.

The two spent lovers/combatants roll off a blood-smeared mattress … 

or is it a sparring mat?

Credits:

Performers: Vincent Morelle, Sylvia Camarda. 

Photos: Anna van Kooij

'How do we make contact?' is the question posed by 'Libido,' a 60 minute opus created in 2010 by David St. Pierre and Andre Gingras for Dance Works Rotterdam. For those unlucky enough not to make contact with the live show, Josanne Buiting's 2 minute teaser on Vimeo gives a taste of a chamber piece that somehow manages to be as full-blooded and opulent as a Puccini opera.

The setting of this psycho-drama is a grim space somewhere between a warehouse and a slaughterhouse, the protagonists nude dancers Vincent Morelle and Sylvia Camarda, both looking vulnerable in this unforgiving milieu. These two characters proceed to push frustratedly at the limits of sex without reaching even the frontiers of mutual understanding.

Looking as if his very flesh has been forged in blood and fire, Morelle gives an unrestrained and technically dumbfounding performance, at one point scrabbling manically on his back like a wounded insect. He creates the sense of a man who, for all his force and energy, is unable to connect, to grasp what is in front of him - fated not only to see it slip out of his hands, but from under his feet as he slithers and slides through his performance. Even the act of crouching on all fours on a trestle table is, for him, somehow precarious and full of potential pitfalls.

Harried by Morelle, Camarda yet carves out moments of stillness. In the video clip we see her sitting, pale and lovely, on the table, as serene as a young naked Buddha. Unlike Morelle, she never seems to lose her footing. Even when the two men spin her like a bar of soap, you feel as if their efforts to dislodge her poise are ultimately futile.

Yet there is an irony. For all their sense of mutual alienation, Morelle and Carmada are caught together in the same spreading bubble of oil, sweat and blood. Literally mirroring their contortions, the shimmering, liquid floors remind us of their common humanity. Similarly, references to various bodily orifices and excretions serve to suggest that the flesh itself can never be totally sealed off and enclosed, whatever the state of our hearts may be.

While the material itself may be troubling and problematic, 'Libido' is thoroughly exhilarating as a demonstration of the expressive powers of the performing nude. There is an almost iconic power in the moment when, bloodied knives in hand, Camarda straddles the fallen Morelle and allows her body to morph luxuriously through a series of preying-mantis poses. That she can play this scene masked is an act of bravura, an assertion that the unadorned flesh has come of age as a storyteller.

Dance Works Rotterdam are currently preparing 'Anatomica', an investigation of the body by Andre Gringas, for an April, 2011 premier. You can follow their progress on Twitter.

CARDIFF LIFE MODEL COLLECTIVE - MODELS AS ARTISTS

The Cardiff Life Model Collective are an energetic, innovative group who blur the distinction between modelling and performance art. As well as their weekly drop-in sessions, they organize lively special events involving music, dance and readings, while also developing their own happenings and hiring themselves out as living art for events.

To judge by the sumptuous images I have seen, this commitment to figure modelling as performance imbues the work of the Collective with a wonderful theatricality, not to mention a meticulous attention to detail. The three poses I want to discuss here are fully thought-out compositions in their own right.

The first dual pose offers a study in contradictions. The clean diagonal of the woman's body contrasts with the man's muscular contortion. We wonder whether these two characters are fighting each other or working in concert. Impossible to tell. I love the way the angle of the woman's hair echoes the slant of her pointed toes. 
 

The next pose shows the same two models in another mini-drama. This time the relaxed male figure is countered by the subtle tension in his companion, whose torso arches elegantly out of his shadow. Note the dynamic line running from groin to breasts, highlighted by the slight erectness of the nipples.

The solo pose in the last photo is a delight. The model uses her bent knees, straight back and thrown-back arms to create a strong, supple composition, rewarding from every angle. The tension in the chest and bottom suggests a hunger for the viewer's gaze. And note the way her fingers are interlocked behind her back – every detail, you feel, has been considered.

When a group of talented models apply themselves in this way, they're not muses, they're artists. To lovers of the artistic nude, the Cardiff Life Model Collective offer a great deal in terms of entertainment and food for thought. If you live anywhere near Cardiff, you couldn't do better than go along to one of their drop-in sessions on a Monday or Tuesday. The entrance fee is only £5 as of Winter 2010.

If you cherish an ambition to be a nude art model but there are no life drawing classes in your area, or if you're a disillusioned muse looking for a change of direction, the Collective are all the inspiration you need to get up and organize a groundbreaking art event of your own.

Learn more about the Cardiff Life Model Collective at their Facebook page and from their website, both of which have galleries which are feasts for the eyes.

Drop-in Sessions

Every Monday, 5.30pm, Milgi Lounge Yurt, 213 City Road, Cardiff.
Every Tuesday, 5.30pm, Cardiff Arts Institute, 29 Park Place, Cardiff.
Every Tuesday, 7pm, Cardiff Arts Institute

Photographs by kind permission of the Cardiff Life Model Collective.