Naked Ladies

source: theafitzjames
NAKED LADIES is a revisionist queer history of nudity in performance through an examination of canonical naked images but also: black bodies, queer bodies, feminized bodies. As an examination of why we get naked in performance, it asks tough questions about the ‘nature’ of the female body in contemporary culture, trying to understand its contested position between stigma and celebration. But it is more than just a lecture. A combination of storytelling, performance art and theatre, Fitz-James looks at her own life, upbringing and naked stories, both traumatic and silly, attempting a queer reckoning the (her) naked body.
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source: youtube
NAKED LADIES is a layered history of naked female bodies in performance. A combination of storytelling, performance art and her own personal anecdotes, Thea asks tough questions around the ‘nature’ of the female body, trying to understand its contested position between stigma and celebration. Between the naked and the nude, between forgetting fathers and remembering mothers, past sexual stigma and personal secrets, NAKED LADIES ask why women get naked on stage. Why, where and for whom?
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source: singaporefringe
Naked Ladies is a queer revisionist performance lecture about the history of the naked female body in performance.

Bringing together confessions of her own naked stories (both traumatic and silly), striptease and storytelling, Thea Fitz-James dives head-in into the politics of the female body to ask why, where and for whom women get naked on stage.

Between the naked and the nude, forgetting fathers and remembering mothers, past sexual stigma and personal secrets, Naked Ladies tackles the obscuring of queer bodies, the erasure of black bodies, and the way these are played problematically across the artist’s own white, read-as-straight body.

Join Thea in examining the contested binary between celebration and stigma, Biblical and pop princesses, and art history and pornography, to take contemporary scandals alongside the tragedies and unveil the problematic mystery of the female body.

“… a fascinating and tantalizing step forward into a discussion of gender,
sexuality and objectification of the feminine form.”
—Phoebe Montgomery, 101.5FM Radio Adelaide Digital

THEA FITZ-JAMES is a Canadian academic and theatre practitioner. She explores depictions of women and feminism, integrating performance art and theatre to ask difficult questions around cultural norms.

RELATIONSHIP TO ART & SKIN

Naked Ladies looks at a number of artists who have used nudity in their work. It asks what histories might be locked in the skin; what politics are tucked away in the scar on the arm, or the wrinkle on the face. It asks what is actually revealed when you show your naked body; what it means to be truly skin deep. Performer Thea Fitz-James uses her own body as a canvas, projecting images of nudes across her own skin. Here, skin acts as both form and content, playing history across the body in ways that excite, move, and inspire.
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source: theafitzjames
Thea Fitz-James is part academic, part journalist, and part theatre practitioner. She holds a BA in Theatre from McGill, a Bachelor of Journalism from University of King’s College, and a Masters in Theatre & Performance Studies from York University. Thea is a theatre maker and performance artist, having created work with FADO in Toronto, Secret Theatre in Halifax and the School of Making/Thinking in New York.Her most recent work explores contemporary depictions of women and feminism, integrating performance art and theatre to ask difficult questions around cultural norms. She is interested in further developing her work along the themes of trauma, loss, absence and presence. She is currently working on her PhD in Performance Studies at York University, looking at knitting and textiles in activism and performance.