“Performance Review”

Clowns are supposed to make us laugh, but without the costume they suddenly seem much more fragile.

In this series, nudity becomes a way of removing that protection. The figures are exposed while doing things that are ordinary, ridiculous, careless or occasionally dangerous — performing without quite knowing for whom.

For me, there is something familiar in that feeling. We often become strangely self-conscious when we know we are being observed or judged by someone above us. Even the most normal action can begin to feel like a performance.

Perhaps that is what these clowns are: vulnerable little versions of ourselves, trying to look as though we know what we are doing.