'In Red' Perfromance

In Red is a beautiful piece by Russian artist Thiana. it's been performed at various different exhibition spaces and galleries with different models, sometimes male/sometimes female. I'm not sure if she's ever done 2 models at once- that would be a nice twist.

The premise is a model lays naked on the floor as Thiana paints their body using her head as the paint brush and her hair as the bristles. When I first saw this performed it was with a female model and it was incredibly intimate. Thiana did not hold back at all rubbing her head into every part of the models body until she was covered in paint.

After the performanceThiana spoke candidly to everyone about the piece, my girlfriend asked her if she ever used a male model to which she replied yes- she prefered working with a male model. I imagined this would be fantastic to do as a model but also remarked its a very intimate and perhaps erotic piece- surely a male model would be unable to control an erection as she dragged her hair across his penis. She said the models she'd had in the past had been very professional and that it hadn't been an issue. She also invited us to her next perfromance, at a University, in which she would be using a male model. We accepted the invitation.

The set up was exactly the same, the model lay naked on the floor as the crowd gathered around him. It was a very small room and very cosy. Thiana got to work on his body, dragging her hair across his face and chest, rubbing in hard against him as he lay naked on the floor. It was beautiful to watch, very sensuous and as the minutes passed she worked her way down his body to his penis. With no hesitation she threw her hair across him and burrowed her head into his groin. I must admit I was impressed by the models ability to stay soft, he did not appear to show any arousal at all. 20 minutes laying naked on a floor with 100 or so sets of eyes watching a sexy artist drag her hair across his body, fair play to the man.

After the performance Thiana and the model, Gary, again spent time with the crowd. Happy to answer questions and explain the preformance. Gary inevitably was his "do you not find it a turn on?" and jokingy, "is everything in working order down there?" To which he replied his girlfriend - who was a spectator, would have "murdered him". If this was the case then kudos to the man, certainly has more control than me as you can see from the photos.