Local Positioning Systems: Preceded by a Tour of the Show...

Stuart, a nude art tour at the MCA is quite a treat. How did you get the MCA to agree to it?
For a number of years I’ve pitched it to a lot of different places and the institutions just weren’t interested. It was Robert Leonard from the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane that was really up for it. And once it had been shown once, other people decided to do it.

What kind of audience did you get for that first tour in Brisbane?
Not many men – they find it more difficult. One woman said to me, “Women find it a lot easier to take their clothes off in public because they are used to being objectified.” Isn't that interesting?

Well, that’s definitely true in terms of the ‘male gaze’ and ‘female object’ in art theory.
You're right, the female is the muse. The first time I did the tour it was taken by a lot of young, female art students. They asked their male friends to join them, but the response was: “No fucking way.” Since then the demographic has been more balanced, though.

A lot of your other performance works, like ‘Funny Fear Workshop’ and ‘Conceptual Art Improved My Embarrassing Life’, deal with themes of fear and embarrassment. Is that where this comes from?
I like my work to be pragmatic and practical and it has to benefit my life personally. But an arts writer once asked how it benefits other peoples’ lives and that’s when I started to do the embarrassment workshops. I also ran some anger workshops for the 2008 Sydney Biennale and I thought it would be wonderful if we did it again without any clothes. That’s where this came from.

So what exactly will we be doing once we de-robe?
Unfortunately art is very rarely spoken about at openings, so I want to talk a lot about the works. I will also talk about the history of the contemporary art museum and how it has followed a model of reduction like the naturist community. The museum is a white room without windows and all the extraneous architectural features are removed, so it too has a culture of removal. The fine arts community also adopted the idea to their clothes in the 1980s by wearing black.

So you’re just taking that a bit further?
Yes, because some clothing is more sophisticated on a material level than some of the artworks, and I think clothing can be a noise of types. And people carry an identity with their clothes. People are sexualised in clothes, and when they remove them that ends. It’s not about the sexual organs, it’s just about flesh.

It’s true. I did the Spencer Tunick photograph at the Opera House a few years ago with some friends, and when I think about it I can’t remember what any of them look like naked. It was more about the feeling.
Exactly. There is a threshold to cross, but all the anxiety leaves when you remove your clothes. I like to focus on how people feel in the moment. You feel lovely not wearing clothes, and being in the museum when it is closed without clothes on is sublime. It’s very restful. And we’ll have drinks too, as a naturist community would. 

For more information check the Performance Space website