When I was fifteen I can remember that a television programme called Aquarius caused a stir when it showed a scene from British Sounds by Jean Luc Godard in which a naked woman both ascends and descends a staircase in rather plain house.

 

Little was left to the imagination and the woman’s pubic bush was clearly seen which to a fifteen-year old in the late 1960s was something quite different especially on television

 

Although I had seen women naked before there was always something ordered about their nudity in whatever environment it occurred

 

For some reason this short clip cemented itself into my subconscious and I often recall it when I visit houses with similar staircases

 

I have copy of Marcel Duchamp’s 1912 painting Nude Descending a Staircase No 2 on the landing above my main staircase

 

But the effect although pleasurable is not the same due to the geography of my house

 

I have however noticed that it is rare that either members of my family or guests ever stop on the short landing where the painting is hung

 

This in part I contribute to the motion of the painting

 

I also have a short recording of Edward Muybridge’s Woman Walking Downstairs which was created in 1887 in my collection

 

Like in the Godard movie the model/actress is totally naked although nearly eighty years separate these images

 

This work inspired Duchamp who in turn inspired Godard but in turn it has yet to inspire me and I believe that this short collection of rather meaningless words is all that I am ever likely to write on the subject