Nude-topia, an installation created for the MOCA/Denver Biennial by Susan Meyer, references past utopian experiments and their intersections with art, commerce and modernity.  An observation area outfitted with product line and marketing materials greets the viewer/visitor.  From the aluminum-plated deck visitors might select from among a series of “model” utopian landscapes - futuristic, sci-fi, B-movie version.  Suggestions of communal activity and industry encourage closer inspection.  Nude-topia is inhabited by tiny, pseudo-classical plastic figures seemingly unable to connect with each other or their current situations, and appears prey to forces outside of its control.  The work is inspired by past utopian communities, particularly those near Concord, MA and in upstate New York; from their initial, often ill-conceived attempts at perfection to their eventual, often tragicomic surrenders to defeat. 

Installation, materials include:  wood, dowels, casters, rope, insulation, expanding foam insulation, plastic tubing, paint, toothpicks, HO-scale plastic figures and camper, toothpicks, hardware, t-shirts, business cards, Karim Rashid Kite chair and soundtrack (selections from the Forbidden Planet soundtrack by Louis and Bebe Barron and The Lonely Surfer by Jack Nitzsche.)