Context

This was performed in a bar in London. We’d hadn’t previously sought permission and so had to be careful to avoid staff for as long as possible. Security did spot the model a couple of times, and just asked to cover-up, at those stages presumably believing it was just a revealing dress that had slipped.

Realisation

During a two hour period in a busy London bar the model only had 12 of the 26 squares removed. No-one seemed offended or refused to participate, but many were at first hesitant and didn’t seem to believe that it was ‘really ok’ for them to cut away the clothing.

The performance started in a more secluded upstairs area before moving down to the main bar. After staff realised and asked us to cover up we moved back upstairs to finish the performance.

The cuts made were respectful, trying to preserve the performer’s dignity. As it became obvious that the performer was comfortable with the situation the cuts were made faster, with less reassurance to the public required. Although the performer’s bottom and breasts became exposed, this was mainly due to difficulties with the dress staying in place rather than explicitly exposing cuts made by the public. One cut which should have completely opened the dress on one side was actually split over two squares and so left the dress attached - it is thought this was a deliberate action on the part of the cutter so as not to expose the performer.

Eventually the performer removed the dress completely, as it kept falling down anyway. She then remained in the upstairs area of the bar talking to people for several minutes until management asked her to re-dress. This in itself was very interesting; a worker saw the performer naked and when questioned said that she herself didn’t mind, but that she’d need to let the manager know. Similarly the manager held a civil discussion with us, politely asking the model to re-dress and stating she didn’t mind but she couldn’t allow nudity in the public space. However, no-one in the public space seemed to mind either. So who are we enforcing these rules for and why?

When talking to the public most were positive about the performance. Some of them at first had thought it was pure exhibitionism, or just a very daring dress. However, as they’d talked to the performer they’d come to understand the reasons better. Several people commented that it was inspiring and thought-provoking, with a couple asking whether we thought the reaction would differ if performing in a different place or with a male performer.

The performer wasn’t proactively approached by people wanting to participate, and neither did we notice lots of people taking photos.

The performer stated afterwards that she felt much more comfortable once fully nude than she had when in the half-cut dress, as the latter felt sexualised to her. Before the performance she’d wanted to retain her hat, so it was interesting to see that once fully nude she removed this as well.

Context

This was performed in a London bar, and was the second time it was attempted with a male model, the first ending abruptly and early when the model was physically thrown off the premises by security. In carrying out this performance the model makes every effort to appear neutral and non-threatening, approaching and asking questions such as “May I have a minute of your time?” and “If you had the opportunity to cut a square out of the dress, which one would it be?

Realisation

This bar was relatively small and the nature of the performance was soon apparent to everyone in the outside area. Due to the number of people present the model ended up going round each group twice before the event ended. Due to the more intimate nature of the venue a number of longer and rewarding conversations were held with the other participants.

The first group approach were all male and adopted a distinctly ‘laddy’ response, making jokes. The response was potentially driven from bravado. and one of the group seemed less comfortable than the others. The group were from Australia and New Zealand and made a few comments later in the night that the request would have ended with the model being punched in their home countries. The group went straight for a square covering the penis. Later on in the evening this group, who were playing table tennis, ended up hitting a couple of tennis balls at Neil.

The group approached, again all male, were really interested in the idea and cut a square covering the bottom. It was interesting to see how the male model had immediately been ‘revealed’, whereas the female model (in Society Cut-Out 1) was treated with more respect initially, and was only uncovered later in the process. This theme has also been observed in other work, such as Blank Canvas 2, where the male model was exposed immediately, but no-one exposed over the female model’s breasts, even after heavy prompting.

As the evening went on a couple of members of staff came by collecting glasses. As far as possible the model tried to remain inconspicuous but the performance team felt sure the staff must have realised, and that they were willing to let it continue. At one point the staff even spoke directly to Neil, informing him that the garden was closely shortly.

There was one large group of around 8 that the model spent a longer period of time with. There were various conversations around the acceptability of theme, and several of them commented it would be more awkward if it was an overweight model. One interesting theme that came up was when a couple of the group commented that they were happy to talk and sit with the model, but wouldn’t like it if they saw him nude on the street. This was very similar to the key message that we derived in other performances, where people have often commented that the current state of undress is ok, but that taking it a step further wouldn’t be. When we’ve repeated the performance, but taken it one step further, we’ve still received the same message - the fear of the ‘different’ seems powerful and difficult to resist, even when presented with real-time evidence that difference doesn’t necessarily have to be scary. One girl in this group was open about being particularly prudish, and although she was adamant that she was completely comfortable with the situation, and that it was just her own body she didn’t like showing, she did struggle to make eye contact when talking to the model.

During the second round of of speaking to the groups everyone had become more normalised to the situation in the bar. When speaking with the groups this time the environment become more natural; in the larger groups some of the group would talk to the model and some of them wouldn’t. Rarely the conversation focused on nudity.

It was the large group mentioned previously that made the final cut on the dress to leave the model fully nude. He was able to sit in the bar for about 10 minutes until one of the staff saw him. The barman appeared flustered and angry and asked the model to get dressed. The model tried to politely explain that there are no clothes left, and that no-one minds (which the group he was sitting with vocally supported), but the barman was adamant and demand the model leave before walking off. Although the model wasn’t escorted from the premises, and no threats were made about calling the police, the message was clear.

The model decided this was probably a good time to leave and so walked nude through the bar and out the front. This prompted quite a reaction from other visitors in the pub and in the front garden. The model’s clothes were in a house a couple of minutes away so he retrieved them and redressed.

The model then returned to the bar and the situation had defused a little. Apparently some of the visitors who had been involved in the cutting had explained it was a social experiment to the staff and they now understood more. The model also spoke to the barman who had demand he leave; he was far more amicable and reinforced that he didn’t mind but the owner and other customers might. Again, as with Society Cut-Out 1, the theme of a fear of what others might overruled the personal response - there are certainly parallels here which can be drawn with the difficulties, previously and continually, faced by people of colour and homosexuals.

Now dressed the model stayed to talk to a number of people in the bar who hadn’t been involved in the cutting. Although all had surprised to see the nude man, most were intrigued and interested in hearing more about what the evening had been about and why.

The main contrasts between this performance and that of the female model in Society Cut-Out 1 were:

1. The male model was exposed much more quickly; there seemed to be more motivation to respect the dignity of the female model

2. The female model was politely asked to leave the establishment, whereas the male model was angrily confronted (and on one previous occasion physically ejected).

Context

This was a slight twist on our standard Society Cut-Out performance, where we moved it to the street and placed the performer in a blindfold. We chose Brighton for our most public UK performance yet; we hoped it’s liberal reputation would stand us in good stead and we weren’t to be disappointed!

Realisation

The start of this performance was nerve wracking for the model as we had no idea how it would pan out, but felt certain the police would be called at some point. As it turns out we needn’t have worried; it was a very wholesome experience and we were made to feel very welcome.

That said, we did misjudge the situation slightly. We’d set this performance up as a public vote, whereby the model held 24 cards in their hand, and had 24 squares drawn on the dress. Signage was erected that the model would be there for 90 minutes or until all the cards had been removed from the model’s hand.

However, within about 10 minutes the model was basically completely nude; and the impact of what we were doing was diluted. People did still continue to come over, cutting smaller and smaller squares of the small pieces left on the model, and in some cases picking up pieces from the ground and cutting them.

As far as we can tell no-one took a card out of anger or upset. A couple were taken but we think these were instances where people thought it was all part of the activity, rather than a specific vote against the nudity. This is something we would need to rethink when repeating this performance, so as to make this aspect clearer.

One particularly heart warming moment was when a young child asked “Mummy, why’s that man not wearing any clothes?”. The mother brought the child over and helped the child read the sign and explained what we were doing and why. When we were planning this performance the reactions of parents had been one of our key concerns, as this was the first time we had done something so public in the UK, and this one small act immediately helped us feel so much more comfortable and settled in the performance.

Although the model was basically nude after about 10 minutes we carried the performance on for about an hour before stopping it earlier than planned; mainly because we felt the impact was diluted. So many people had said so many nice things whilst we were carrying it out, and it’s definitely something we’d look to repeat. Shop owners were even coming out of their stores to take photos and participate.

In the end we were disappointed the police didn’t show. We’d expected that they would but that they would potentially let the performance continue, particularly if it was being accepted by the public We were intending to attempt to leave the area nude, to see how that changed the police response – it would be interesting seeing if they would try to justify nudity on one street but not on another. Given that the police didn’t arrive during the performance, we felt it would be too risky to leave the area naked, as we would have less obvious justification if we were stopped by them. The model dressed and was invited for a drink by people in a nearby café; in retrospect it would have been good to have the model remain nude and see if they would still have been invited into the café, and whether the café would have allowed it.

Context

This was the first time we’d received proper advance permission for Society Cut-Out (at Love Shack London, an amazingly friendly and considerate bar and restaurant, so make sure you give it a visit regardless of your views on sex and nudity). We took along two models, one male and one female, and started at opposite ends of the venue before eventually meeting and continuing on past each other. Definitely the most welcoming reception we’ve had!

Realisation

The female model was really well received throughout this performance, with every group she approached decided to cut something off her. She ended up completely naked, and stayed that way for approximately 30 minutes before re-dressing, and received no negative comments through-out the evening.

The reaction to the male model was slightly different, but still overwhelmingly positive overall. The male model started in the far corner of the garden area. When he spoke to the first couple he was facing only them, with his back to everyone else in the garden. This first couple were really intrigued by the concept, and actually approached the model a couple of times to speak to him later during the night, and chose to cut a square out from his genital area. When he turned round to approach the rest of the garden, the next two closest groups immediately rejected him - this was the only negative reaction received by either model during the night. Our assumption is that this was because no-one had been ‘normalised’ to the nudity at this point; as the model turned round all these two groups saw was a man with his penis out holding scissors - they assumed he was a threat and responded accordingly. The next group had time to see what was going on, participated, and from there people began to realise the nature of the event and the atmosphere relaxed.

A couple of groups politely challenged the male model’s motivations, but nearly everyone was supportive. This is different from previous Society Cut-Out performances, where normally a couple of groups have suggested the models were motivated by exhibitionist or sexual behaviour.

Another noticeable difference at this venue compared to some other events we have don’t is that we didn’t notice anyone taking photos of the models. Usually there have been instances of groups both taking photos without permission, and of groups approaching the models and asking for photos.

During the evening a few other people joined us by getting topless. Although the female model re-dressed after about 30 minutes, the male model remained nude for a few hours. This gave a different insight in itself, as many people new people arrived who had not participated in the dress cutting previously. We didn’t notice any discernible anger, fear or shock from new arrivals upon seeing a naked person in the venue, possibly due to the calm of everyone else around (by this point a number of people were engaging in long conversations with the model).

One group questioned the male model as to whether he spoke to his work colleagues about this; and questioned whether he was a hypocrite for promoting sexual openness if he wasn’t open himself. This was a fair challenge and one we unfortunately don’t have a good answer to. We would like the world to be a more accepting and tolerant place, and for people to define their value system based on personal reflections of right and wrong, rather than media, legal or family influenced definitions. But stepping outside society’s definition of ‘normal’ is still scary, and can still carry significant detriment for those who try to do so. Although completely polite and respectful, the group that questioned the male model about this ultimately revealed that it shouldn’t be discussed in the workplace, as is it wasn’t professional to talk about. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but to us, this is exactly the reason why we would struggle to be open about this in the workplace. In most UK work environments people would happily allude or directly reference being gay; but how many would open up about being a naturist, engaging in sub/domme relationships or enjoying swinging? Why do we treat various consenting sexual preferences differently?

Once again, a big thanks to Love Shack. We had a great evening and are thrilled to have been asked back for your ‘Eco Fashion’ event!