Nudes in Cleveland

Cleveland is getting some more artistic...exposure. Thomas Mulready interviews Spencer Tunick at his always informative Cool Cleveland site. Mr. Tunick is best known his many large scale nude photos, many taken in city streets around the world. Here's a snippet from the interview:

Your online bio states that the nude bodies in your work 'do not underscore sexuality' yet it is an obvious element. What is the role of sexuality in your work?
Well, obviously, the work is working with the nude, which can be sexual or it can be horrible, like the controversy with the prisoner abuse scandal, with the nude bodies positioned in a totally horrible way. When you look at those pictures you don't see the sexuality. There can be an aggressive naked body, a tortured naked body, or a beautiful naked body. In my work, the body is used repetitively as a medium to create a living sculpture to deal with the humanity and the vulnerability of the body, juxtaposed to the public space and the concrete world. So it's not so much sex or sexuality that is involved.

I remember from the HBO documentary on Tunick that he seemed a bit high-strung, but the effect of his photos is undeniable. They are going to be doing a photo shoot in Cleveland at dawn on Friday, June 26th. You can sign up at his website - people who come out for the shoot get a free 8x10 photo.