by Susannah Indigo
(02/21/07)
There are many ways to uncover your true erotic nature and check in on just how brave your sensual,
bohemian shadow self might be.
Do you share your erotica reading habits openly with friends and family? Ever consider joining in on
the Naked Bike Ride? How about a little non-sexual nudity for art's sake – would you sign up to strip down for Spencer Tunick’s latest photography project if he came to your city and gave you an invitational flyer?
In spite of the fact that many of his shoots begin at 5 a.m. on cold cement somewhere, I've decided I would
indeed volunteer for his projects, because I just finished watching his two fascinating documentaries,
Naked States (2000) and Naked World (2003).
I actually signed up on his volunteer Web site,
offering my email for notification of
future projects in my area.
I simply love the free-thinking, slightly odd artiness that's shown in these films, and went
searching for his galleries online
after viewing them. Someone in the film calls it a sort of "anti-Hustler world of nudity," which is
true, but it's still intensely erotic and sensual even in the weirdest of situations.
I did wish I could sign up as something other than "skin tone=mostly pale with freckles," because by far
the most interesting photos he has taken are of mixed skin colors with people of various ethnic backgrounds.
Different body types and ages also create the most compelling photos. For example, nothing is more
touching and beautiful than the 73 year old black South African man in Naked World who stands
alone, buck naked in the middle of a field, and says "I'm taking off my clothes and looking into the future."
There's also a striking large black woman in Naked States who says she was raped and has trust
issues -- she ends up posing with a white woman, standing on the flag, empowered. Posing for Spencer
Tunick, she says, was "90% of her self-therapy" during her recovery. This is art at its best -- surprising, transformative, beautiful, new. Tunick says that he thinks of bodies as water,
and he is always trying to form "waves" with the bodies in his mass photos. He began all of this
because he
sees the body as an art object, and believes in the purity of the bare human being, and wants his
installations to be
a peaceful, yet powerful, reaction to war and all of the harshness in the world. This theme continues
with his third
documentary film, Positively Naked,
which is photographed with "85 HIV+ souls. no clothes. no apologies" -- truly bridging the personal to the
political. (This film is not yet on DVD.)
That question -- just what is art? -- comes up often throughout both films. Tunick begins his vision at
the start of Naked States with people mostly laughing at him, but he's sure he's going to be in the fine art magazines someday, and is shown
leafing through them longingly. Tunick looks rather like a cross between Adam Sandler and
Ross-the-Intern on the Tonight show, so I almost expected great hijinks and humor
to break out at any moment, but he's quite serious, and by the end of Naked States he has his
first gallery showing in New York City, and it's quite remarkable, and popular, with many of his
subjects attending to proudly view their photos.
Both films offer an evolving travelogue of attitudes about art and nudity,
which are often surprising --
it's easy for Tunick
to get
naked participants in Fargo, North Dakota, but harder in Paris. "Something about Paris," he says, "they want
to attack
the naked people." In St Petersburg, Russia, participants are quite enthused by the project - "We
don't have much contemporary art here," one man says, while also noting that socialism doesn't really let you "own" your
own body. "Art is freedom."
Tunick travels to some expected sites of bohemia -- Burning Man, a Phish concert,
a nudist camp (where he also strips down to join in their atmosphere from behind the camera, but complains
of "not enough pockets!" while shooting), and a Harley convention, but it's the other kinds of people in the midst of their ordinary lives who suddenly
decide to sign up and strip down for art that carry the most impact. It is perhaps the contradiction between the hard
everyday urban world and the vulnerable human body suddenly exposed that is the unusual, rather than the
things we are more used to seeing, like a nude woman in a studio or a naked body on the beach.
The final locale in Naked World is Antarctica, where Tunick brings all his subjects with him on
the expedition ship --
that's his long-suffering girlfriend pictured above, standing nude amidst the penguins.
Maybe she hangs in there for all these trips because she realizes that underneath all the challenges of these trips and
installations there is an excellent treatise on art, humanity, diversity, and owning your own body.
People are often shown during the films considering just what kind of person they are, can they do this?
Or maybe his girlfriend is just in it for the great naked road trips. Either way, both films
are excellent performance art and great fun, so take a look, and then decide, could you
maybe be a part of his "international bohemian tribe?"
