MARTENS, Tess

My Baroque Body
Tuesday October 8, 11 am – 5 pm
630 Queen Street East

Using various coloured bed sheets, I will pose in different nude positions for six hours, inspired by lesser-known Baroque and art history paintings of women whose bodies resemble mine. I prefer to draw from more obscure works of reclining nudes. I will change positions whenever a timed red light flashes on my body. While witnesses will not be asked to draw or paint me as a model, they are welcome to take photographs. My nude body speaks to represented female-identifying bodies that are criticized for shape and size, sexuality, gender, sex work, feminism, nude images on the internet and social media, and historic depictions of women in this modern age of representation.

Tess Martens (she/her), currently based in Guelph, Ontario, graduated in 2018 from the University of Waterloo with a Master of Fine Art focusing on performance art. In her art practice, personal experiences are re-contextualized through performances. Humour is often used to invite and engage the audience. In 2019, Martens presented a performance on her identity in The Hague, Netherlands and a political performance in New Mexico, USA. She was invited to attend the Venice International Performance Week in January, 2020. She also performed in Berlin, Germany at Pandora Art Gallery, a small underground space. She has performed in several events in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. When she is not performing, she creates paintings that parallel her performance art practice.