They came. They saw. They bared all. And in the end, the 1 826 people who shed their clothes for American photographer Spencer Tunick on Sunday were a work of art.
With Tunick issuing commands through a megaphone, nude bodies of every age, shape, size, skin tone and fitness level formed sculptures in the concourse of a dilapidated former train station, standing up, lying down, leaning sideways on their knees.
Tunick has been doing such nude assemblages — he calls them temporary site-related installations — around the world since 1992.
The artist chose Buffalo’s decaying Central Terminal, with its broken windows and walls of graffiti, as a juxtaposition to an earlier work at New York’s pristine Grand Central Terminal, with a plan to display photographs of the two side by side.
”I think what the bodies did was bring some hope to the future,” said Tunick.
For the volunteers, being part of Tunick’s art meant leaving their inhibitions in a pile of clothing outside and enduring a series of sometimes uncomfortable positions on a cold and dusty tile floor, cameras documenting every move.
”Get on your knees, bend forward and curl up in a ball,” Tunick instructed. ”Be quiet please. Head down. Head further down!”
”Very good. It’s very good. Don’t move,” he said.
”When he had us all leaning on our knees, that was getting a bit painful,” volunteer Joe Giovenso said afterward. ”I don’t think I could have held that much longer.” – Sapa-AP