Shaved
The blurb: The designer, animator and photographer Bart Hess demonstrates the art of the close shave in this sleek short where the seductive curves of a toned figure are slowly unveiled.
This amazing short film is the worth of Netherlands artist Bart Hess, who has previously designed the “slime dress” worn by Lady Gaga in her Born This Way video. In this video he used 28 cans of shaving cream to totally cover the body of an Olympic swimmer. A 2 metre-long metal blade was then carefully moved across the swimmer’s body, the blade replaced by a white line in post production. The shoot went for ten hours, the swimmer wore Speedos to protect his more sensitive parts but he still sustained five cuts in the process. So yes, he was actually shaved in this film.
“What is important to me in my work is a sense of estranging,” says Hess. “I want to show the spectator an image that may not be recognizable right away.” Read more about the shoot at Nowness.
I found the whole thing to be rather mesmerizing and erotic. The way the shaving cream fills in gaps after the blade has passed through leaves an arresting visual effect, morphing the muscles of the swimmer into a new shape.