Norwegian Artist Ridiculed Online After Naked Art Stunt Failed

Talk about something really stupid. The London-based Norwegian artist Hilde Krohn Huse has been ridiculed for weeks after it became known that a failed naked stunt was rewarded with an art award, NRK reports.  [18] A video recording in Aukra in Romsdalen in Norway, which went terribly wrong, has received enormous attention in both British and Norwegian media, and in social media.  In connection with a film she made about Aukra, Huse was about to film a short sequence where she planned to hang naked upside down from a tree by her legs. But she instead trapped herself and it turned out that it was impossible to get free from the ropes. After many painful attempts she had to shout for help. [1] The camera ran out of power, while Huse kept trying and crying.  She said: ‘When I realised I’d tightened the knot [under my bodyweight] I thought, “Oh my god Hilde, you’ve done something really stupid. Let’s try to get out of it”. ‘I went practical, saving my breath, trying to calm down. Freaking out would not have helped.’ [7] After half an hour one of the friends that she had brought from London heard her cries and helped her out of the rope.  “She just kept averting her eyes and tried to untie me and after she had, I just got my things and hobbled back to the house covered in bruises and bark and everything. [3] The artist, who escaped unhurt asides from a small cut on her ankle, said: ‘The video ends when the camera shuts off, but I was there calling for help for another 30 minutes.  “For me, it’s natural to be naked in front of the camera, but it was probably a bit out of the ordinary for her when she was getting me down,” she said.  “Luckily, someone I knew came.” [5] I felt sick when I saw the video for the first time, I experienced everything anew. But I slept on it and realised that the video is quite decent.’ [2]  She showed the film about the failed stunt to her art friends, who (of course) thought this was a great film, despite the circumstances.  After some attempts to edit it, Huse concluded with the same, and decided to let the raw footage become a separate project. Back in London, she sent the video “Hanging In The Woods” to Bloomberg New Contemporaries, a prestigious organization that supports artists in the starting block. They liked it. (Everybody loves humor). The video, which was recorded during Miss Huse’s MFA in Fine Art Media at Slade School of Fine Art in London, has now been selected to be exhibited in the Bloomberg New Contemporary exhibition. [2]  The exhibition provides a platform for 37 fine arts graduates in the UK to showcase their work.  [5] The film, called Hanging In The Woods, is said to identify the powerlessness of the artist when it comes to the relationship between performance and reality. [2]

“I had tried Bloomberg for four years I think, so it was the last chance this year,” says Huse. “I really enjoyed doing my BA in Farnham. I made a lot of friends, I still hang out with and they helped me develop so I could get through to this exhibition. “I have a lot to thank them for.” Asked how she hopes visitors will react to the film, Miss Krohn Huse said: “I hope they feel uncomfortable.  “That sounds horrible, wishing my audience discomfort, but it’s not that pleasant a film, when made and to watch. “I hope they laugh at the start and then start to question it when it all goes wrong.”[3] This is what the young artist had to say about her work:

I think people feel for the subject – the emotions are raw. The boundary between the fiction and reality breaks down. When you watch an audience watch it – some people think it is funny and then they see the distress is real so it becomes less funny, but I don’t mind people laughing – as soon as I make a work it is for the audience. Half is my intention and half is what the audience get from it. It has gone around the world – it is weird experience to see something that I intended to be fictional, turn real and then be in the news and turn fictional again through the media. [9] [19]

Is this art? Or is this just a 12-minute video of a woman stuck to a tree, yelling for Sarah and Adam to help?  So,there is no doubts that this stunt was an epic failure but for some inexplicable reason, she still put it on the internet where she got nearly half a million views. The clip made her a viral sensation, according to Dazed. [19] Online the reactions were unanimous: this video is a real piece of shit. Now she is being ridiculed in social media, which is kind of understandable. [1] Only in a totally degenerate culture can we win an award for a failed naked video. Speaking to 5 live Breakfast, Hilde said her “fail moment” has turned into a success as the piece is still “creating a conversation between different aspects of culture.” [12]

Indeed, perhaps it was inspired by the early Matthew Barney work ‘Field Dressing,’ wherein the artist climbed around his studio, inserting petroleum jelly into a variety of orifices. Gallery representation is likely not far off for Ms. Huse. [4]  Meanwhile, the footage can be seen from September 18 in Birmingham at the New Contemporaries art show.