By Sasha Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: January 25, 2012
VICTORIA, B.C.
It would be interesting to ask Tasha Diamant what her nightmares are about. She regularly presents in front of an audience entirely naked.
She doesn’t plan her presentation, but only talks unscripted and unprepared, speaking haltingly, visibly anxious. Her body hair, everywhere, is unshaven; her armpit hair clings, slicked wet with sweat – it trickles down her sides. She takes deep breaths. She falls silent, watching the audience watch her, and the tension is palpable. Tasha Diamant deliberately lives a nightmare.
Tasha Diamant presented the Human Body Project at the annual Canadian University Press Conference recently held in Victoria. Her project is to share a visceral experience of vulnerability and embody the fragility and morality of humanity, to bring forth unity, shared responsibility and compassion in her audience.
Diamant, at 50-years-old, is a former journalist for Macleans and visual artist, and has been presenting the Human Body Project since 2006. She has presented at various conferences as well as at several Canadian Fringe theatre festivals. Yet Diamant admits that presenting the Human Body Project, being naked in front of a roomful of strangers, is still very difficult and uncomfortable. With insecurity and a conservative background, she struggles with anxiety every lecture.
The presentation moved the audience. As she takes off her clothes, any witness would say that Tasha Diamant embodied vulnerability. She is a teacher, yet her lecture is marked by that vulnerability. It’s not an exhibition of courage; it’s a stripping away of defenses, of pride and face that humanity carries. She didn’t try to defend or explain or laugh anything off, just spoke seriously and uneasily.
Her explanation of the Human Body Project was far from eloquent – it was authentic.
“You should consider this an exercise in non-domination,” Diamant said to the audience. It’s a reaction against our way of living.
Humanity is quickly destroying the earth because of their need for dominance. “The tools we’ve been given aren’t working,” Diamant continued. “They’re only giving us harm.”
Diamant explained that dominance isn’t going to save us, not even to get us out of this cycle of destruction. This unprepared lecture and honest nakedness shows a vulnerability that humanity shares. We don’t know how to abide in this vulnerability, and we are destroying a planet that is just as fragile because of this.
“The fact that there is no global unity is outrageous,” Diamant said. Her example of fragility and vulnerability revealed represents humanity underneath this, and brings compassion and connectedness forward in the audience.
As Diamant stood in front of us, she told us to “move beyond the words. Words have crushed us with their fricking built structures. I want to invite you to be in your own bodies… We‘re too bogged down in words.”
As Diamant spoke, she invited the audience to join her on stage, and experience that vulnerability. By the end of the lecture, fifteen audience members had indeed joined her, and stood naked in front of the audience.
Tasha Diamant says that motherhood made things different for her, and inspired an unending urgency to do something for change. “I have a Master’s in education, so this could be called a lecture, a seminar, a presentation – whatever. I was moved by urgency.”
The reaction of the audience differed. For those who did join Diamant couldn’t describe how surreal and emotional, and especially unexpected, the experience was. Diamant’s bravery and beauty in that was inspiring for many.
However, another audience member described the experience as a “nudist altar call,” after the presentation, saying nakedness shouldn’t be considered a medium to become fragile and vulnerable, but to be comfortable. Though she agreed the body is a strong message, especially one of an older female, she questioned its use in Diamant‘s purpose: “should nudity be about vulnerability or empowerment?”
Another member was inspired by Diamant’s own presentation. “But I was disappointed in the change of atmosphere caused by group dynamics. It was no longer just her, but a group of kids emboldened by each other’s nudity.”
“They didn’t seem vulnerable and honest, they commented on the feeling of nudity, and cracked nervous jokes rather than being silent… There was a peer pressure happening, but still only those people who would be most vulnerable in their nakedness remained in the audience, only the confident and outgoing students were in front.”
Whatever the reaction, Tasha Diamant’s presentation of human vulnerability was powerful. Her non-dominant steps towards change is reminiscent of the non-violent Occupy movement.
