Studio Practice

In the US, what little nudity is permitted is usually shown in a sexual context. This contributes to a perception that we’re supposed to evaluate every naked body we see as a potential sexual partner or rival. Seeing nudes in a museum is one of the only exceptions to this. I don’t think that most of us react to a naked portrait in a museum by thinking: “Wow, I’d never have sex with that, why is it on display?” Or by writing a letter of complaint to the museum director about Rubens’s glorification of obesity. Therefore, I have framed my models as sculptures and works of art in a museum, in the hope that the viewer will suspend any judgments about whether they find the models sexually attractive or not, or whether their bodies are socially “acceptable.” Hopefully, this will give the viewer an opportunity to observe the work as they might a classic painting, and discover some aesthetic interest, or even pleasure, in the unique shapes and textures of the model's bodies.