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Katherine Chronis is an enigmatic performance artist and involuntary activist, a child of immigrant parents who is very much American. She has participated in poetry slams and performance series such as Scapegoat Unlimited, where she portrayed a number of bad girl roles. She has shown up selling salvation on subway platforms and taking on all comers at The Church of Holy Wrestlers.
Eros Zine: Talk a little bit about where your Get Naked Project came from. Katherine Chronis: It came from a lot of personas I was carrying that I didn't really want, and I didn't know how to undo them. I've always been a scapegoat in my family. I was a junkie and a high school dropout. I'm a fuckup, according to society. But all of that led me to a great place. I had to get rid of a lot of my old stuff that I was carrying from my past to move on. I figured this was something that I could do. I could go out on the street naked. I'm a hot dog. I was always jumping off of three story roofs when I was a kid just to prove I could do it. So when I started the project, to be truthful, I just was a hot dog looking for something to do to show myself. I didn't know what I thought. I was thinking a million things: Oh, I'm not naked. They're naked. They're reacting. I'm really watching them. We're watching the other people. I'm not even a part of this really. It was a lot of bullshit, but it allowed me to realize that I'm full of shit. I'm a big part of this. I'm coming to understand that there is a value in simplicity and in everything we do.
KC: Right. I mean I had rationalizations, but they were just bullshit. I've been through a lot and I know I was full of shit back then. The Get Naked Project helped me to get rid of a lot of the shit. Even if you look at pictures of me from when I started compared to how I look now, you can tell there's a big difference in terms of my comfort level. I had a beautiful body as a young woman and I was ashamed of it. I was molested by my uncle when I was very young. When I told my family about it many many years later, they didn't know how to deal with it. No one ever said, "We're so sorry this happened to you." I know that they feel that, but they just couldn't deal with it. I come from a history of denial. My parents are immigrants. Basically all they worried about was making a living, making money. They felt it was better not to make waves, any trouble. They were representing their country. But ever since I was a kid, I was like, I don't care! You can smile all you want. I didn't even know the word denial, but I felt, like, it's a lie! It's a lie! And I never fell into that oh, I'll just be quiet. For a long time, when I was a junkie, I was really into the secret of being a junkie and nobody knowing. Then as I started to take a look at myself more and more, I realized that I really wasn't dealing with having been molested so young and I traced back my obsession with secrets to that. One thing the Get Naked Project did for me was help me realize that I thought I knew what was going on, but I found out that I didn't. By taking my clothes off and being in front of people, I learned that I don't really know all the things that I thought I knew.
KC: People say that to me on the street a lot: "What about the children?" I'll stop and talk to them and say, yeah, what about the children? So many American children are documented as being sexually molested. So let's talk about the children. I've never see a child perturbed by me being naked on the street. EZ: Kids don't have any problem with nudity because they don't know it's bad. KC: I just wonder why we are so upset about the body. It's okay when it's in a bra and underwear and pushing a product. If it's selling something, then it's part of the economy. But my whole thing is I'm not selling anything at all. I mean I don't even have pockets! It's just an idea, a philosophy on display. Also hope. And people can choose to look at it any way they care to. But that's my viewpoint. I'm not telling people to get naked. I don't think it would be healthy for most people to go naked on the street...I'm not telling people how to be. I'm telling them my story. EZ: What do you tell people when they ask you why you're doing it? KC: I respond with each situation differently every time. And if you put together all the responses, that's the answer. I can't answer fully each time because it would take too much time. So it's whatever comes out depending on each person's energy. I don't have to think about it. There's no law against me being naked in public that I've found. People ask, "What about public indecency?" If you read the law, it says that I would need to be either lewdly manipulating my genitals or someone else's.
If I wore a bra and underwear, everyone would sexualize it. People are free to sexualize it, but that's not my specific goal. In fact, I think there's a lot of sexual dysfunction because everything is sex. Ice cream is sex. Shampoo is sex. Who the fuck is gonna give a shit about sex anymore when it's all around us all the time? There are no boundaries anymore. We're confused. I stepped out naked trying to do something and it turned out that I was really on a path towards healing myself. I didn't know what I was doing at the time. EZ: Tell me about Texas. You were arrested there. KC: I was with the Mangina. I was in Austin for an artists-in-residency program and we were performing at The Vortex Theater. It was hot and we were feeling deranged. With the heat and everything, finally I was like, goddamn it, [yells] WE'RE GOING TO THE CAPITOL BUILDING! So we went down there and it was all cool and relaxed. I did a couple headstands. Then these two men got off the bus to see why the naked lady was at the capitol. I knew that it was time for me to go, but I just couldn't leave without talking to them. And I couldn't get dressed.
EZ: Did they find a family to complain? KC: I don't think that they had one, because they changed the charges three times over a year and a half. Gary L. Bledsoe [Chronis's lawyer of the Austin, Texas NAACP] said he'd never experienced - or even heard of -- such a delay, ever, for any kind of case. I went back a year and a half later for court. The prosecutor had a fit, a tantrum. He was jumping up and down; he turned red and had to leave. So he was replaced. The case came down to if anyone saw my pussy lips. I don't know how we could prove who saw my pussy lips. No one ran up and said, "I saw her pussy lips!" EZ: Why was that part of the anatomy more important than the rest of you? KC: They were trying to find a law to prosecute. It wasn't illegal for me to be naked there. They had to look really hard and find something to apply. So here's another question: If it's not illegal to be naked on the street, what else do we think is illegal that isn't? When did societal law become the legal law? It's a good question. Gary Bledsoe worked out a deal. The state wanted to give this deal because they'd fucked up. They didn't know what to do with me. The deal was if I don't get in trouble naked in Texas in the next six months that it just goes away. There's no guilty, there's no fine, there's no anything.
It was hard for me to do. I could've gotten a lot of PR. It could've been, you know, me and Karen Finley! But I had to be clear and true to what I need to do. A lot of times you look like an idiot, doing the right thing. I don't need to be a martyr. Hey, I've had some great times! Being surrounded by eight troopers naked in Texas at the capitol building, with people standing around not knowing what was going on, was a very powerful experience. I realized the cops are afraid of a naked woman. I think it would be great if we women realized that we do have a power in our vulnerability. I think we'd be a lot better off. Cause that's what I say, I empowered myself through vulnerability.
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