Nude Awakening

Spencer Tunick set a world record last year when a staggering 18,000 people turned up in Mexico City to pose nude for what he describes as an “installation” project. Tunick, who has raised conservative eyebrows with similar mass nude photo shoots in cities such as Dusseldorf and Barcelona, is hoping that a minimum of 1,500 will volunteer for each one of his two Irish events being staged in Cork and Dublin.

But does he honestly think that the Irish will be willing to turn up and strip off in public?
“Well, you are now known as a prudish nation, but just imagine if more people come and participate in Ireland than posed for me in England,” says Tunick. “I think that would be pretty awesome. My largest installation was in Mexico, but that’s one of the world’s largest cities. I’d say if you’re 50-50 about doing this, if you turn it over to a 51% and actually come and do it, you won’t be dissatisfied. You’ll really find it to be something you didn’t expect. Some people find it therapeutic. Someone posing with a prosthetic leg is a quite interesting story; or someone who had a double mastectomy. It was quite a wonderful, uplifting story that a woman who had both breasts removed still felt that posing nude was in her lifetime agenda.
“Some people find it hardcore because they’re making art with a contemporary artist because mostly if you go to a museum you stand there and look at art or you experience art. Very rarely is there an opportunity to actually make a piece of artwork if you’re not an artist. It’s amazing to work with everyday people, to make something that goes into the art world – which is usually about separating itself from everyday people – even though they want as many people to come into the museum as possible, there still has to be this separation in order to create this elitism that exists. I think this kind of takes that away.”
Tunick has some interesting ideas for how he plans to set up his Irish shoots.
“The Irish works will be mostly about abstraction. My ideas range from creating a long line of people to creating something that resembles an old-fashioned TV antenna. And we’re trying to get the people to be covered by a big foamy substance, which will be quite bizarre – sort of like Peter Sellers in The Party,, which is a Blake Edwards film. It’s kind of a cross between that and using a certain food popular in Ireland, which I haven’t decided on yet, as a large scale prop! And we are going to do a location where we create a garden of people.
“I’m sort of the catalyst to this collaboration. It’s not so much about an American artist coming here; this is an Irish artwork, so there is a lot of pride from the model participants that shows through. The process of making an installation is sort of like a walk through the city. I don’t just do one setup, I do three setups in a morning; depending on the weather and depending on how long people are naked. If it’s a little bit cold we’ll work really quickly.”

Tunick has been arrested five times in New York and has even been attacked there when conducting one of his mass nude portraits, but he is reluctant to discuss if he’s had any death threats.
“I can’t really divulge that. It’s too depressing. You can imagine…” he shrugs. “There have been many wonderful moments, crazy moments. I remember being chased outside the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York. There was a pedestal but no statute right next to the steps, so I put some people on the pedestal and security came and chased me down the steps with the people posing. We all, literally, as the cab was moving down Fifth Avenue jumped in and got away. You would think that they wouldn’t chase after me outside The Met!”
But why was he arrested so many times? Tunick insists it’s all down to prudish right-wing politicians.
“I’ve been arrested five times just because a lot of Republicans are corrupt about the nude body in public spaces. They can surely watch videos and movies with nudity in it, but when it comes to public space, they’re quite anal. The first time you have this romantic idea of the artist being arrested and kind of wear it as a badge of honour, but after three, four or five times, when you’ve been working on something for six months and the police take it away from you just like that (clicks fingers)… I’ve been thrown behind bars in the holding area called The Tombs in New York City with criminals that could have assaulted or killed someone. You don’t know who’s who in there. So, it started to get a little bit dangerous and my lawyers filed a Federal First Amendment Lawsuit against the City to protect me and the participants. I won that and the Republican government under Giuliani kept on appealing and I kept on winning. And I eventually won at the level of the Supreme Court.”
But there has also been a more positive aspect, with many celebrities declaring themselves big fans of his art. He recalls the actress Drew Barrymore running through the streets of his hometown to hand him a bunch of flowers.
“Drew had been sitting at a table in the restaurant next to me with a bunch of people and I sent an invitation to pose – I usually hand out cards to pose – over to her table with some roses, as there was a guy going around selling roses. I was too embarrassed to confront her. So, I left the restaurant saying, ‘OK, she got the roses and the invite. Maybe she’ll show up to participate’. And I’m walking down the street and she ran after me, saying ‘Oh, Spencer, I love your work. I have one of your posters in my trailer on the film set. I’d love to pose for you’. So, that was very nice. You never know, she might have or she might have not (posed); I can’t really tell!”

Tunick points out that his installations are handled in a respectful and professional manner, with participants organised and directed collectively throughout the duration of the installation. Participants will be notified in advance via email of the specific time and location and, once there, will shed their clothing in a secure area and will be organised into the compositions by the artist, in as brief a time as possible.
Does he ever get distracted during the process?
“Only if you got naked! I’d be like, ‘What the hell is he doing here?!’” he jokes. “I get distracted by little things. Sometimes people will say a joke in the crowd, but if someone was really persistent and tries to get attention to themselves, I ask them to be part of it as opposed to wanting to be the person that takes over the scene. There can be a certain sensuality to the whole process, but actually when it’s happening – and during it – it’s very unsensual and it’s about art-making as opposed to sexual. Afterwards, it can be more sensual remembering the idea of naked people. But the very idea of making it is very much a wholesome, cool process.”
Participants will, Tunnick promises, only be nude for a short period of time. In exchange for taking part, attendees will receive a limited edition photograph, from the event they attended, by the artist.
“You go to see the artists you really love in life – like, I really love Radiohead, Ben Harper, The Beastie Boys, Pavement – but you go to see these bands and not only do you have to pay, but you have to pay for a t-shirt. So, here you get to actually not pay to come and you actually get a gift for participating – from the Docklands and the Midsummer Festival in Cork – which I think is a wonderful thing in today’s capitalistic world.”

If you’re interested in posing, register at www.spencertunickireland.ie. The Cork installation will take place as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival on June 17 and in Dublin at the Docklands on June 21. Participants must be over-18.