Sinéad O’Donnell & Paul Couillard
Toronto, Canada. 2011.
‘Topless in Toronto’, with Paul Couillard.
We discussed the representation of the body in performance art and how the nude body is perceived by the general public in the public space as opposed to in a gallery.
Paul related the story of Gwen Jacob, a student who was arrested for removing her top in public on a hot summer day in Ontario, 1991. Her conviction was overturned in 1996 when the Ontario Court of Appeal judged that the baring of female breasts in public was not an indecent act. This piece was made on the anniversary of the law being changed.
Sinéad O’Donnell & Paul Couillard, ‘Topless in Toronto’, Caution project, 2010. Photo Shot: Henry Chan.