The Neo Naturists is a performance based live art practice started during the early 1980s in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, UK.

History

The Neo Naturists were started by Christine Binnie, Jennifer Binnie, and Wilma Johnson in 1981 in London.

Grayson Perry Sir Grayson Perry (born 24 March 1960) is an English artist. He is known for his ceramic vases, tapestries, and cross-dressing, as well as his observations of the contemporary arts scene, and for dissecting British "prejudices, fashions and foib ...

appeared in many performances. Their performance at the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Royal ...

in June 2012 was the first time the three main founders had performed together since 1986. There were many performances in the interim years. They had a major retrospective exhibition in 2016. In the world of urban

Thatcherism Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character a ...

The Neo Naturists were seen as unfashionable

hippies A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

. With an enthusiastic spirit of anarchy, they used this unfashionability to enact a challenge. They challenged the highly fashionable Blitz Kids of the early 1980s by creating performances which brought smudged body paint, nudity, cooking, fish fingers, pancakes,

calor gas Calor is a brand of bottled butane and propane which is available in Britain and Ireland. It comes in cylinders, which have a special gas regulator. The company was formed in 1935, and is one of the UK's largest suppliers of liquefied petrole ...

, modern

hunter gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially wi ...

carrier bags Carrier may refer to: Entertainment * ''Carrier'' (album), a 2013 album by The Dodos * ''Carrier'' (board game), a South Pacific World War II board game * ''Carrier'' (TV series), a ten-part documentary miniseries that aired on PBS in April 200 ...

, bosoms,

patchouli Patchouli (also spelled patchouly or pachouli; ; '' Pogostemon cablin'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, commonly called the mint or deadnettle family. The plant grows as a bushy perennial herb, with erect stems reachin ...

, sweat and messy exuberance into the heart of the self-conscious

New Romantic New Romantic was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New Romantic mo ...

club scene. Their work brought the aesthetics and vision of

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

and

Samuel Palmer Samuel Palmer Hon.RE (Hon. Fellow of the Society of Painter-Etchers) (27 January 180524 May 1881) was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and p ...

, Cecil Collins and

neo-romanticism The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in philosophy, literature, music, painting, and architecture, as well as social movements, that exist after and incorporate elements from the era of Romanticism. It has been used ...

of the 1940s into direct collision with the slick gesturing of New Image painting and

neo-expressionism Neo-expressionism is a style of Late modernism, late modernist or early-Postmodern art, postmodern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s. Neo-expressionists were sometimes called ''Transavantgarde'', ''Junge Wilde'' or ''Neue Wild ...

. The Neo Naturists subtextually, used their own female bodies in the context of the, often gay and exquisitely dandyesque, club scene, such as The Blitz, to play with feminist sexuality issues and sexual politics. As living, naked paintings they performed ancient and modern rituals, everyday actions and rituals on stages lit like kitchens. They juxtaposed ritual action with ‘common sense’ to create messy exuberant happenings. The Neo Naturists have an intention to become Neo Naturist octogenarians and to continue performing with body paint on, into their 80s.

Timeline

* 2006 – Neo Naturist Archive, B2, My Dead Gallery, London * 2006 – Neo Naturist Archive, Secret Public,

Kunstverein München The Kunstverein München (km) is a non-profit art association located in the Hofgarten in Munich, Germany. It was founded in 1823 and is one of the oldest German art associations. The Kunstverein, a privately sponsored association with almost 1,3 ...

* 2007 – Neo Naturist Archive, Secret Public,

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an modernism, artistic and cultural centre on The Mall (London), The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps a ...

(ICA), London * 2007 – Neo Naturist Archive England and Co, London * 2008 – Neo Naturist Films Derek Jarman

Super 8 Super 8 or Super Eight may refer to: Film * Super 8 film, a motion picture film format released in 1965 * Super 8 film camera, a motion picture camera used to film Super 8mm motion picture format * ''Super 8'' (2011 film), a science-fiction f ...

film festival, The Gate Notting Hill and Ritzy Brixton * 2011 – Neo Naturist Archive, Camulodurum, First Site, Colchester * 2012 – Neo Naturist Films, Camulodruum, First Site, Colchester * 2012 – Neo Naturist Films, ICA, London * 2012 – Neo Naturist Life Class, Hayward Wide Open School * 2012 – Neo Naturist Films taken into BFI Collection

References

External links

* {{official website, www.neonaturists.org.uk Performance artist collectives