The architecture of the flesh

Spencer Tunik, an American photographer, known for mass installations in the style of Nude, showed the correspondent of The Daily Telegraph Harry Mounty his New York Studio, located on the territory of the former commodity warehouse.

The office of Spencer Tunika is decorated with photos of naked people, but they do not have a cheerful viciousness emanating from calendars with naked girls, which are covered with all the walls in the car repair shops. In one photo, 25 gloomy democrats with white, like paper, are looking at the TV screen: there George Bush celebrates the victory in the presidential election. On the other, forty tanned bathing people dive into a hot source in Mexico. The wall on the contrary is completely covered with images of mass installations of naked nature.

Models of tunic are absolutely not excited. They rarely smile, rarely show emotions. As a rule, piles of bodies flaunts in his photographs, from which it is difficult to distinguish at least one thing that can cause sexual feelings in the viewer. “I create the architecture of the flesh,” explains the tunic, sitting in his studio, located on Manhattan on the fifth floor of a building, rebuilt from a former commodity warehouse. “I try to express the sculpture present in the mass of naked bodies and create a theatrical action for this.”

The thirty -year -old Spencer Tunik removed living sculptures composed of 500 to 7,000 volunteers, in cities around the world. He carried out his most famous nudist art projects in Montreal, Barcelona, Rome, Melbourne, Santiago, Lion and London.

In 2003, the tunic laid out 160 naked Londoners on the steps of the famous County Hall, where meetings of the city parliament were once held, and now a private museum of contemporary art is located, a gallery of Charles Saatchi. After filming, the photographer invited all participants to dine inside the building - provided that they will remain undressed.

In July last year, 1700 naked Scots gathered a dank summer morning to take a picture, folding a bizarre wave -like pattern from their bodies. In the evening of the same day, the first night shooting of the tunic took place: the volunteers lay face down on the curved blade of the city bridge Gateshed Millennium, connecting the banks of the Secret River.

“Navkala residents are famous for the fact that they are rarely putting on warm clothes, gathering in cold weather for an evening walk, so it seems to me that it was a familiar thing for them,” recalls the tunic. “But I still received a regular mixture of satisfied and resisting models.” They themselves volunteered to participate in my action. All of them are interested in contemporary art and are free -thinking people, but some of them could not overcome the feeling of awkwardness when it came to undress. ”

“My shares give people exemption from complexes. Many say that they get sensual pleasure from them. Although some feel awkward. You can immediately calculate those who are uneasy - they laugh a lot and joke during installations, ”says the photographer.

Photos taken on the streets of Newcasl were recently exhibited at the Baltic Art Gallery city exhibition complex, and are now demonstrated in Hales Gallery in London.

Having collected his models, the tunic evaluates them. “I select volunteers according to the floor, or the length of the hair, or age, or any other factor that could come to my mind while preparing for the shooting. And then I begin to work with the selected characteristics. You can take part in one of my shares. To do this, just register on my site and specify the color of your skin according to the proposed color diagram, ”says the photographer. The diagram that he shows on his computer seems to include all possible skin colors: from snow-white and infant pink to the color of black chocolate. “I can beat a special shade of your skin by comparing it with the opposite model of the color spectrum or combining you into the same group with people of your skin color.”

“Sometimes rather strange candidates turn to me,” says Tunik, showing a photo of a very thick naked woman sitting on all fours on the porch of her house. “This lady invited me to her dinner, where, supposedly, all her friends are naked. It seems to me to go to the barbecue. Well, probably it will look interesting. ”

Despite the fact that the tunic studio has a large hall equipped with special equipment for individual photography of naked models, it rarely works there. Instead, he goes to a small room and sits down at the computer. It is here that the artist does most of his work, classifying and sorting various skin pigments, devoid of hair part of the body and even areas with traces of cellulite.

“In order to prepare for the Scottish show, I needed two years. For each photography, I use four cameras, because I do not want to take risks. The organization of mass shares is such a time -consuming process that I am afraid to make myself depending on one camera. ”

A tunic brought up in North New York is not like an ordinary representative of the artistic bohemia. “In a military school, I was a basketball star. The son of Gangster John Gottie studied with me. Already at school, I showed a rebellious spirit, drove a military orchestra up and down the stairs. ”

Having finished training at the New York International Center for photography, Tunik took up photographing naked people on the streets of his hometown. Its first mass shooting took place in 1994, when the artist photographed a pile of bodies next to the skyscraper on the East River, which houses the UN headquarters. “I did this in order to pour out my anger caused by the tragic situation in Rwanda,” he explained.

From this moment, a whole decade of mass nudism began. At the moment, the tunic, by his own admission, is experimenting with formats and preparing a new project. “I'm going to work in Bruges, where I take a picture of 50 men, covering them with white chocolate mass. I have already shot women covered with dark chocolate, ”says the artist.

05/17/2006 / Harry Mount material published in the "newspaper" No. 82 dated 05/18/2006.