Kunstenaar/fotograaf Erica Simone was al langere tijd gefascineerd door de relatie tussen mensen en kleding. De hoe en waarom probeert ze weer te geven in haar kunstprojecten. Voor haar zijn kledingstukken slechts een manier van zelf-expressie. In haar nieuwste project besloot ze om voor één dag haar kleding uit te laat. It’s art.
‘Nue York’ is een collectie van frisse, opvallende beelden waarin Simone door de straten van NYC paradeert. Uiteraard volledig naakt. Ze stapt uit een taxi, gaat winkelen, koopt sigaretten én stapt zelfs in haar adamskostuum in de drukke metro.
“The way we dress tells a lot about us: who we want to be in society, who we want to assimilate with, how we want to be perceived, or simply is a way to be creative” aldus de excentrieke kunstenares. “The thought of what life would be like if we didn’t have fashion to express ourselves or to interact with each other was an interesting concept that I felt an urge to convey photographically. I wanted to do it in a humorous and upbeat way and remove the traditional stigma of nudity being erotic.”
The work was challenging to produce in many respects, after all public nudity is in fact an illegal act and although Simone appears extremely comfortable in her own skin – it was easy to shed the threads and bare all for the sake of art.
“First, going naked in public—which is not an inherent fantasy of mine—was quite a dare, then avoiding arrest, and all of that in the pursuit of capturing as perfect photographs as possible on a tripod with a self-timer, considering the compositional aspect of passerby’s and traffic. All in all, this project has not been the easiest to produce, but it has been a lot of fun and rewarding on many levels.”
“With the book, I simply hope to make people laugh while opening their minds and having them think about society, clothing and nudity in a different perspective. Sometimes it’s good to challenge taboos and stigmas, I think it’s about time nudity be considered as just being human nature and not necessarily erotic or, even, offensive. It’s important to be comfortable as human beings, to embrace who we are and to love ourselves just the way we are.”
Check de onderstaande (nsfw) beelden van Nue York en bestel haar werk op deze website. Een deel van de opbrengsten van het project gaan naar het goede doel, organisatie Beauty For Freedom die strijdt tegen mensenhandel.
In de categorie ‘It’s Art’:
– Lichtpatronen op naakte vrouwen
– Lichamen gedoopt in honing