Sweet success for nude toffee stunt

There was only one thing on Christchurch artist Audrey Baldwin's mind after her Dunedin Fringe Festival performance "Canker" at the Blue Oyster Project Art Space last night.

"A shower," she said, with a tired grin.

Two and a-half hours earlier, Baldwin had crawled into a cavity lined with 1m square by 4mm thick panes of pure toffee and begun to lick her way out.

However, she had the challenge half-licked before she even started, as the dodecahedron meant to be constructed for the performance was reduced to a hexagon.

"We broke a few panes when we were putting it together," Baldwin said. "So, we had to change the shape of the structure."

A crowd of about 30 curious spectators gathered at 5.30pm in the gallery as she crawled naked into the toffee tomb.

Asked what it was like inside, she replied: "Sticky".

At 8pm, she broke through one of the panes and was greeted by cheers from onlookers.

She emerged, covered with toffee, and blew kisses to the crowd.

"It wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. It was actually quite meditative," Baldwin said.

"Towards the end I remember thinking: 'I am going to get out of this.' It felt so victorious when I broke through."

The project referenced the modern "sugar-rush society", she said.

- nigel.benson@odt.co.nz