Artist forced to shout for help after naked tree stunt went awry

A Norwegian contemporary artist was left hanging naked in a tree for three and a half hours after an video art installation she filmed in a Norwegian forest went wrong. Hilde Krohn Huse, who lives and works in London, ventured into the forest in her native Aukra in Norway to film a video featuring herself hanging naked from a rope in a tree.



However, when she reached the end of her filming, she realised that she was completely unable to free herself. “The video ends when the camera shuts off, but I was there calling for help for another 30 minutes,” she said. “I felt sick when I saw the video for the first time, I experienced everything anew. But I slept on it and realised that the video is quite decent."



Eventually, a friend heard her screaming for help and came and rescued Huse from her precarious position. The video, recorded during Huse’s final year at the University for the Creative Arts in London has now been selected from thousands of applicants to be exhibited in the Bloomberg New Contemporary exhibition. New Contemporaries provides a platform for recent graduated fine arts students in the UK to showcase their work.

Contains nudity.

Vimeo link.

In the film ‘Hanging in the Woods’, the viewer can witness the breakdown between performance and reality as the intended performance goes wrong and the performer is stuck hanging from the tree without being able to free herself or having any visible means of help or escape. Huse said it was fortunate that one of her friends was within earshot. “For me, it’s natural to be naked in front of the camera, but it was probably a bit out of the ordinary for her when she was getting me down," she said. "Luckily, someone I knew came.”