Art in Japan>Photography>Spencer Tunick: Nude Adrift

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Spencer Tunick: Nude Adrift

by John McGee

Spencer Tunick, Chinatown, L.A. 1, chromogenic color print, 180x227cm, 2000 
(©Spencer Tunick, courtesy I-20 Gallery)

American artist Spencer Tunick somehow convinces thousands of people to take their clothes off and lie in the middle of empty city streets at sunrise. Since 1993, Tunick has been staging and photographing these events as his unique take on the popular nude theme.

Tunick, 34, recently stopped in Japan as part of his “Nude Adrift” project—an 8-month, around-the-world bid to “photograph a nude on every continent.” He and girlfriend Kristin Bowler have met a lot of interesting people so far—the director of the Sigmund Freud Dream Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, a woman who makes waffle cones in Montreal. And Tunick has photographed all of them in the nude. 

While shooting individual nudes is a new direction for him and one of the main purposes of this trip, Tunick has also made seven group photos en route. Up to 2,000 people—roughly half men, half women—participate in what Tunick calls “temporary site-related installations.” In the large, 1.8mx2.3m color prints, masses of prone bodies butt (sorry) against the hard edges of the city. A palette of skin tones warms the gray background. “I use their bodies to form shapes [and] use their bodies as shapes,” says Tunick. In some shots, the participants look wholly choreographed—lined up head-to-toe like sardines, facing away from the camera, or curled into crouched fetal balls seen from the back. In others, they seem to have fallen naked from the sky, lying crumpled and scattered. 

These group pictures can be dehumanizing—faceless masses of people quickly become things. This is mitigated by the intense emotional and spiritual effect Tunick says the participants feel at the events, a kind of magical release from social strictures and personal insecurities when surrounded by so many nude people. To continue the dialogue and sense of camaraderie of the moment, Tunick gives all participants a free print of the resulting photo. 

In contrast, the photos of individuals are quirkier, sometimes conveying almost too much personality. Why is that woman lying buck-naked on top of the ice-cream case in a convenience store?

Tunick doesn’t look for nudists or exhibitionists—though they find him—or anyone who might bring a personal agenda to his project. He wants to share his art with ordinary people interested in collaborating with him and being involved in the artistic process. 

Unfortunately, early-morning Tokyo may not get to witness the joie de vivre of a group piece this time around, though Tunick hopes to make one here in the future. After making a few individual photos around Ikebukuro earlier this month, Tunick was going to sample a few onsen before moving on.

This article was originally published in Oct 2001.

©2006 John McGee

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