The auction starts on Wednesday 29th March at 6pm (BST), 'Send Nudes' is lot 174 so will be on shortly after. This auction will take place at Dray Walk Gallery, Ely's Yard, 15 Hanbury street, E1 6QR, you can watch it in person however, if you can't, don't worry as you can still watch the auction digitally and place a bid online!
AUCTION STUNT #2
(SOLD)
'SEND NUDES', 2023
48"x60"
Original Artwork on Canvas
Estimate: £8,000 - £12,000
IN COLLABORATION WITH TATE WARD AUCTION HOUSE ON ARTSY
24 hours in a white box, eating, sleeping, peeing and painting on live stream in the name of art
You may remember my first ever live auction, where I sold a completely blank canvas for £10,000. The winner of the piece won a commission of whatever they would like me to paint, I closed my commissions a couple of years ago now so this was pretty big. The collector who won the auction, actually purchased the piece as a gift for his wife and she chose to commission a nude of herself, here's a recent update of the piece!
This time we're taking it further! On Tuesday 28th March at 6pm (BST) I will enter a white box for 24 hours. All I'll have is a £4 blow up bed, a canvas, oil paints, brushes and a chemical toilet. My aim is to paint a 48"x60" nude original on canvas, I will complete the final stroke of the painting when the hammer hits on Wednesday 29th March at 6pm (BST). The entire thing will be live streamed via Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and our website so you can watch me eat, sleep, pee and paint for an entire day in the name of art.
This concept was inspired by my stay in hotel quarantine when I returned back to Sydney from London around a year and a half ago. I spent 2 weeks locked in a hotel room and created an entire artwork collection. Painting was the only thing that kept me going. The quarantine was one of the most challenging experiences of my life so far but I'm a true believer that when you push yourself out of your comfort zone, magic happens.
Auction Stunt No.2 was also influenced by Artist, Marina Abramović and how she uses performance based art to spread awareness about important world events and Illusionist, David Blaine since 'Above the Below' where he commenced a 44-day fast in 2003, inside a box suspended 30 feet in the air above the River Thames in London.
The finished piece will be a Sophie Tea nude. I hope that painting the nude figure live, across multiple social media platforms, will serve as a commentary on the policies of social media platforms regarding sexual content. These guidelines constantly restrict art, expression and creativity even when the content is not explicitly sexual in nature. Recently Meta has discussed lifting Facebook and Instagram's nudity bans which is an amazing start.
There's of course a risk of the platforms taking my livestream down as the piece progresses and the nude figure develops. When do the lines blur between art and explicit content? Over the years I've often had videos, images and artworks taken down and had to crop, blur or pixelate certain sections in images with my beautiful nudies. I want to continue the dialogue about how these policies can be harmful to women, and artists. I hope that we can create a more nuanced approach that allows for artistic expression whilst still protecting users from explicit or harmful content.
I'm feeling more nervous now the time to enter the box is quickly approaching, hopefully see you tomorrow on the livestream. Do check in and say hey, I really will be against the clock to complete the piece in time!
Thank you for being here as always, information on how to bid if you're interested below.
Lots of love,
Sophie x
When and where is the auction?
When does bidding begin?
Pre-bids are open now! Click here to place one.
How do I sign up to bid online if I can't make it?
In order to bid, you will need to make an account and sign in with the auction house TateWard. You can do this here!
How do I bid?
You will need to place a maximum bid anytime before the sale ends, which means you place the absolute max bid price you would be willing to pay for the lot. As the sale progresses, if/when other collectors also bid on your lot of interest, TateWard will automatically bid on your behalf for the lowest competitive price up to, but not exceeding, your defined maximum bid amount.
For example if your maximum bid is £7,000, and someone bids £6,500, you won't pay £6,500 only the next bidding increment to £6,500 which is £100 for this price range.
If someone outbids you and you can place a higher bid than your maximum bid.
What happens if two people have the same maximum bid?
If two bidders attempt to enter the same maximum bid, the first bidder to put forward that amount will be the winner.