Naked is a "living" environmental installation created for and commissioned by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where EIko & Koma were "on view" all the hours the museum was open for the month of November 2010. Eiko & Koma performed the total of 144 hours.
Naked is inspired by Breath, Eiko & Koma's 1998 living installation at the Whitney Museum. Naked continues their Whitney experiment 12 years later, exploring themes of nakedness, desire, and the elasticity of time. Unlike the single body that was present in Breath, both Eiko & Koma are always on view during Naked, in much closer proximity to viewers than they have ever allowed themselves.
7,745 people saw Naked at the Walker Art Center during its 4 week run.
By coming back to live and move in a gallery, we hope to collapse the time passed since Breath, a time in which we have lingered as much as we have aged. We are inviting a close look at another one-month period of time in our bodies, saying to our audience: Linger, stay here with your eyes, live and kinetically observe how our bodies move towards death.
--Eiko & Koma on Naked, 2010 (from an interview with Philip Bither, Chief Performing Arts Curator at the Walker)
Walker Press Release
Walker Collection Card
Interview on Walker Magazine
Bloggers on Naked at the Walker
As a part of Carnegie Hall's Festival Japan/NYC, Naked was presented at Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) in New York, March 29-April 9, 2011 in association with Danspace Project and Asia Society. Eiko & Koma performed for a total of 44 hours.
3,430 people came to see Naked at BAC during its 2 week run.
Interview in Time Out New York
BAC postcard
BAC press release
As a part of their career exhibition Time is Not Even Space is Not Empty at Chicago MCA, Eiko & Koma created another variation of Naked. Instead of dirt used in the original version, a pool of water was constructed in the far end of the gallery that became the eternity or "the other world." On the "island" placed on the near shore, Eiko & Koma performed the work live during the opening and the closing weeks. The rest of its five month run, Naked was presented as a video installation.
Naked was created during a creative residency at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City with support from the Mellon Foundation.
- Reviews
- Poetry of Stillness, in a Moment Streached to Infinity; Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times, April 1, 2011
- In a Place of Dreams and Dreamers ; Robert Greskovic, Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2011
- Eiko and Koma Travel Slowly Into Dreams; Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice, March 30, 2011
- Bear Truths; Joan Acocella, New Yorker, April 11, 2011
- Eiko & Koma's invisible motion at MCA; Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune, June 26, 2011
- Articles
- Viewing Eiko & Koma’s Naked; Bartholomew Ryan, Walker Arts Center, 2012
- MCA to host Eiko & Koma retrospective; Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune, June 21, 2011
- Getting 'Naked' at the Walker -- for art; Mary Abbe, Star Tribune, November 1, 2010
- Walker Correction Card: NAKED; Bartholomew Ryan, Walker Art Center, November 2010
- A Successful Expedition to the Walker; , The Wisconsin Union Directorate Artblog, November 22, 2010
- Working with Watching: Eiko & Koma; Penelope Freeh, Walker Art, November 8, 2010
- Eiko & Koma lie nakedly naked in "Naked" at the Walker Art Center; Jay Gabler, TC Daily Planet, November 3, 2010
- Eiko & Koma's 'Naked' at Walker Art Center; Caroline Palmer, Star Tribune, November 2, 2010