MELBOURNE ART FAIR 2007
Off the Wall - Royal Exhibition Centre, Melbourne, 2007
Opening night's preformance: The Three Wolfmen (doing nudie run):
As a part of the opening night I had organised a live performance related to my work: The Three Wolf Men (read more about the Wolf Men under the section with the same title). I provided the three boys with clothing: golden pants, velvet cod piece, wolf-mask, and three golden penises each. They were told that they could during their performance do whatever they felt like doing, as long as they did not speak to anyone and they were only aloud to growl. They were also handing out my business cards and lollie snakes to the ladies in the audience.
Half way through the performance the boys came up to me followed by two big Security men.
The Security men said: -Is this your wolf men?
I said: Eh, yeah, I suppose so…
The Security men said: Well, they cannot be here. We cannot accept nudity. Directions from above…
I said: What do you mean nudity… they have pants on…
The Security men said: Well, we cannot accept bare nipples!!! They need to get dressed and leave…
I said: What do you mean bare nipples? They are boys… not women… since when can’t a man show his nipples? And isn’t this an Art Fair? The whole walls are full of female bare nipples…and more…
The Security men said that I had 10 min. on me to get the boys out of there or they would have to take them out. And they left.
I spoke to the boys regarding what we should do. They felt insulted. One of the boys said: well, if it is the nipples that is the problem, lets cover them and keep going… Great idea! The boys covered their nipples with my business cards and black tape. It looked so funny! Like a punk low grade censorship. And we carried on…
Fifteen minutes later the Security men came back. They were still not happy.
They said: Listen, the boys need to leave… we are serious!
I said: Now what, their nipples are covered, problem is solved…
They said: no it’s not their nipples that are the problem… it’s the golden cocks that they are holding and juggling with…
I said: Right! If t is the golden cocks that are the problem, what are you going to do with my art work that is hanging on the wall? (Also golden cocks). Are you going to take my art work down in a middle of an opening… And from whom are these directions coming from anyway?
The Security men: from the organisers…
I said: from the organisers… ??? Well, that funny as it is with them I’m here, it’s with them I am showing…(Off the Wall) and the person in charge that I spoke to doesn’t know anything about it…
The Security men: Well, this is serious… if you don’t take control of the situation we will have to do it….
I don’t really know what happen in what order after this. I could never work out who the directions came from and on whose behalf these security men was acting. But the boys got furious. And the live performance took a different part. I had nothing to do with it and I tried to stop them (while I probably was giggling)… the boys decided to do a nudie run only wearing the very big cod pieces…. So that’s the story of how the three wolf men ended up running with bare bums, and flashing bits throughout the whole Royal Exhibition Centre…
That’s what can happen when you get directions from above…
Cecilia Fogelberg
Half way through the performance the boys came up to me followed by two big Security men.
The Security men said: -Is this your wolf men?
I said: Eh, yeah, I suppose so…
The Security men said: Well, they cannot be here. We cannot accept nudity. Directions from above…
I said: What do you mean nudity… they have pants on…
The Security men said: Well, we cannot accept bare nipples!!! They need to get dressed and leave…
I said: What do you mean bare nipples? They are boys… not women… since when can’t a man show his nipples? And isn’t this an Art Fair? The whole walls are full of female bare nipples…and more…
The Security men said that I had 10 min. on me to get the boys out of there or they would have to take them out. And they left.
I spoke to the boys regarding what we should do. They felt insulted. One of the boys said: well, if it is the nipples that is the problem, lets cover them and keep going… Great idea! The boys covered their nipples with my business cards and black tape. It looked so funny! Like a punk low grade censorship. And we carried on…
Fifteen minutes later the Security men came back. They were still not happy.
They said: Listen, the boys need to leave… we are serious!
I said: Now what, their nipples are covered, problem is solved…
They said: no it’s not their nipples that are the problem… it’s the golden cocks that they are holding and juggling with…
I said: Right! If t is the golden cocks that are the problem, what are you going to do with my art work that is hanging on the wall? (Also golden cocks). Are you going to take my art work down in a middle of an opening… And from whom are these directions coming from anyway?
The Security men: from the organisers…
I said: from the organisers… ??? Well, that funny as it is with them I’m here, it’s with them I am showing…(Off the Wall) and the person in charge that I spoke to doesn’t know anything about it…
The Security men: Well, this is serious… if you don’t take control of the situation we will have to do it….
I don’t really know what happen in what order after this. I could never work out who the directions came from and on whose behalf these security men was acting. But the boys got furious. And the live performance took a different part. I had nothing to do with it and I tried to stop them (while I probably was giggling)… the boys decided to do a nudie run only wearing the very big cod pieces…. So that’s the story of how the three wolf men ended up running with bare bums, and flashing bits throughout the whole Royal Exhibition Centre…
That’s what can happen when you get directions from above…
Cecilia Fogelberg
Photos from just outside the Exhibition Centre after the 'nudie run':
Backstage:
