[crispus]

...a few more days left to see "13 Rooms" 11-21 April 2013, Pier 2/3, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, Sydney.

"On Thursday night at the industry preview for John Kaldor's 13 Rooms contemporary art exhibition in Sydney, queues formed at the two rooms where nude dancers could be viewed at close quarters. Upon seeing the snaking line of people, one guest was overheard to say: 'This must be a nude room.' Female security guards inside and outside the rooms monitored the naked performers throughout the exhibition, as with any precious artwork. Paea ___ and Nadia ___* are two of the nine women engaged to appear naked in the art installations during the free 11-day art jamboree. The women, who are all dancers or performers, rotate through a 30-minute session in each the two rooms before having a break. Each shift is 4 1/2 hours." Ms ____ said she was surprised by the range of audience reactions. 'I initially thought people were going to be scared but they are turning out to be quite fascinated,' she said. Others can't even come into the room; some come in then but find they need to leave quickly. In a work called Luminosity, created and originally performed in 1997 by renowned artist Marina Abramovic, performers are asked to stand in the manner of Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. In the physically exhausting piece, they are permitted to move their arms between three positions. Ms _____ said she had been instructed to make eye contact with people who enter the warm white cubicle, which has been dimly lit to create the impression she is hovering a few metres above the ground. She said she managed to forget her own nakedness despite being so exposed and having only small feet and hard props and a bicycle seat between her legs. 'You become part of the idea,' she said. In another work, Joan Jonas's Mirror Check, the performer stands in a smaller cubicle examining their body with a little mirror."

See videos at vimeo.com/user6025992/videos , especially episodes 1, 5, and "Mirror Check."

*Relaxing on a break in the first photo.