Samantha Foster
Spectrum Editor
Seeing performance art on the VCU campus is a regular thing to most students. From flash mobs to students in handcuffs and orange jumpsuits protesting the existence of Guantanamo Bay, it takes a lot to phase VCU students, but one student has done just that.
Art foundations student Nick Lotuaco was photographed sitting on a toilet in Monroe Park while reading The Commonwealth Times last month. Although this would have been enough to shock many, the below-freezing temperatures and snow falling around him added to the spectacle.
“A few people walked by and took some pictures. One girl asked who I was and what I was doing. They all assumed it was for an art project,” he said.
And it was. The project was for his Space Research class, which is required for all freshman art students. Performance art is an important component of the VCUarts program, with multiple classes heavily emphasizing the art form.
For this particular project, students were asked to use objects and put them in public to create and photograph a one-minute long sculpture. Lotuaco chose the toilet as his object for this project and picked up The CT before carrying the toilet from his dorm room to Monroe Park. He bought the toilet from Lowe’s and returned it after his project.
“We were going down the elevator in the dorms, because that’s where I put it together and there’s a newspaper stand right outside the elevator and I thought it would be cool if I was reading something, so I just grabbed that,” Lotuaco said.
“I just opened it because I was kind of nervous, because a lot of things were going on,” Lotuaco said. The snow was just a coincidence, but he said he was pleased with the result of the project despite the changes in weather.
While Lotuaco sat in the park with his trousers down, he said people did gawk at him, but no one reacted negatively to his performance piece. With VCU’s art school so actively involved outside of the studio, it is no surprise that such a shocking thing to see in public did not make viewers run in fear.
Lotuaco has yet to present his art piece to his class for a critique, but he said he thinks it will be well-received.
“I feel like they’ll be pretty shocked,” Lotuaco said. “It’s not something you would see every day, someone sitting on a toilet outdoors.”
Although Lotuaco said he has a new love for performance art after his Monroe Park squat, he is ultimately considering a major in painting and printmaking, where he could pursue several different interests, including performance.
“I’m definitely going to explore the whole performance piece realm because I thought it was pretty interesting. I was just shocked how big of a reaction it got,” Lotuaco said.
Lotuaco hopes to continue the project outside of his classes, taking pictures with his toilet at other locations around VCU.
The Compass will be a definite spot to visit because of the amount of people there throughout the day.
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