Is nudity art?

Tumie Modise | Monday July 6, 2015 17:41

The piece of art depicted the President as some form of naked warrior, ready for war, only that his choice of weapon was not only a spear but some other part of his anatomy. As expected, the artist got a lot of headache for the painting; the piece of art was defaced and considered grossly ‘disrespectful’ by many.

Art is beautiful. However, I never took it as a subject at school. From my primary school days, I have always been hopeless in the subject and drawing an egg was, and is still my greatest challenge. Recently, a local artist stripped bare in what was termed Art.

I will be the first to admit that such Art isn’t my cup of tea, that it is very unusual especially in this country, that this particular master piece is one I would rather have my children not appreciate. A group of friends discussed this issue the other day and knowing I am never without opinion, then asked for mine too.

I initially wanted to abstain from the debate; infact ever since its debut I deliberately avoided the many debates surrounding it, but I now realise there is no running from the issue.

While I concede that the concept was good, I have trouble understanding why it had to be so graphic, why it even had to be associated with a meal time. I know I am speaking in parables, maybe not even making sense to myself.

The problem with Art of this nature is that, simply put, it is more than just Art. No matter how many Chinese shops we have in the country, ours is still a conservative country. I doubt we are even ready for this kind of Art. During our discussion, the only thing we agreed on was that the challenge with this ‘art’ was it should have never made it to the public domain and just like the infamous and very obscene ‘Modipane tape’, the whole thing was literally forced down our throats.

We live in a world where everyone has rights, even animals have rights. We have rights to personal choices, we have rights to associate with whoever we want to associate with, we have rights to change the colour of our hair, heck, and we even have rights to make fools of ourselves once in a while. There is always a catch though and this happens the moment our ‘rights’ infringe on other people’s rights.

In this particular piece of ‘art’ though, a local female artist is depicted dressed in nothing except her ear rings. Fully clad in her birthday suit, her body is there in all its glory.

Arty as it seems, as a female, I doubt whether the piece of art does anything to advance our cause as women. I know that feminists would be quick to sing me the women liberation song; that tired song of celebrating ones femininity.

I agree, but I disagree with the part where we have to go the full Monty to prove the point, if there is even a point to prove at all. What a great way of proving your worth to a male chauvinist by stripping your clothes off! Dream in heaven for male chauvanists and perverts!

For many years now, even a decade after the Beijing conference, women complain of male over-dominance. We yearn to be accorded the same status as men, to enjoy equal opportunities as men and not to be relegated to the kitchen. I doubt we will achieve that with such art, I doubt I would get a job if I had a impromptu stripping act before an interview panel, especially with my hands tied up like a vulnerable slave!

But we were all born naked, some people argue.

But isn’t nakedness also the reason why Adam and Eve put us in this predicament? From a religious point of view, the only time the Bible speaks of nakedness is when it makes reference to shame and sin, but I will leave that to religious leaders and theologians.

From a parental point of view though, I wouldn’t know how to start explaining this art to my children and I doubt art teachers would have that luck either. The difficulty is in the art theme; ‘The dinner’.

At the end, we agreed to wait and first hear what other feminists, religious leaders, civic leaders and even what female politicians (women’s wings) make of this issue, maybe we are just over reacting, maybe we missed the whole concept. But so far, three weeks after the piece of art debut all groups have been conspicuously very silent on the issue. Maybe, just maybe their silence means consent.