Spencer Tunick
Throughout his career, Spencer Tunick has explored the role of the human body in public spaces. He has staged more than 95 installations around the world with hundreds or thousands of nude participants. But what becomes of his body of work when everyone is restricted to staying at home? Holding to the firm belief that art can bring us together while staying apart, Tunick has—with the assistance of collaborators Studio 333—invited people around the world to take part in a new series of communal art works entitled Stay Apart Together.
A set of virtual art actions featuring nude bodies—as many as 25 at a time—Stay Apart Together is Tunick’s first work to be created entirely online. Through the use of a virtual chat platform, participants are asked to pose under Tunick’s direction and pose in unison to reaffirm the resilience of community and human connection. Intended to be an outlet for participants isolating and quarantined at home, the project also serves as an artistic exploration of creativity in a virtual world. The resulting artwork is exhibited here and on the artist’s Instagram account @spencertunick.
— CVF, USFCAM
*Name: Amelia Green
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality: Danish
Occupation: University Coordinator
Age: 38
Gender: Female
“This photo was taken shortly after I finished chemotherapy for breast cancer. I had a baby (he's now 2.5 years old), then they found a lump when he was 8 months old. I was off of work for the next 18 months, spending a lot of time alone at home, between chemo and surgery and other treatments. I returned to work in July and, less than a year later, I am feeling quite some deja vu as I am once again spending a lot of time at home—this time due to the lockdown. My body has been through a lot in the last 3 years: having a kid and a tumor at the same time, getting bits cut off (I had a mastectomy), and now the coronavirus crisis. The photo is a chance to show the world I'm still here, with my weird survivor's body, enduring through this strange time.”
Name: Rita Ibrahim
Location: Latakia, Syria
Nationality: Syrian
Occupation: Student
Age: 24
Gender: Female
“In general, I love to experience freedom in every aspect. Indoors, outdoors, alone or with people. The reason I wanted to participate in this photograph is because I want to experience what it feels like to share my body freely with no judgment as part of an artwork and from a long distance. It is incredible to feel unstoppable through the act of creation in such a serious situation. I consider it a free decision in the first place and I am really excited about it.”
Name: Kim Tan
Location: Malaysia
Nationality: Malayan
Occupation: Management Executive
Age: 27
Gender: Female
“I'm an activist against sexual violence in our community. I have decided to participate in this photograph because I have always admired and supported people in their artistic expression and passion. Even though a conservative society will think that 'I am asking for it' by allowing my nude body to be pictured online, I believe that participating in such a project will allow for strong solidarity among all of us in this time of isolation and/or being alone. Being naked represents vulnerabilities and in allowing others to see us, we are opening ourselves up for them to understand how we function as individuals.”
Name: Anonymous
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Nationality: U.S.
Occupation: Psychiatric Care Technician, Advanced
Age: 26
Gender: Female
“I want to take part in this for my aunt. She was able to participate in one of your works a long time ago in Cleveland, OH. She always talked about how much she enjoyed it and how she wanted to be able to participate again. She passed shortly before your second installation in Cleveland, in 2016. I want to be able to take part for her. I've been following your work hoping I could get a chance to participate, and feel that same pride that she did. Not only is my job stressful and sometimes dangerous, but now everything is stressful, and with these protestors, dangerous. So I want to show that I'm still surviving. I also like the idea of being nude, during a time when we're covering ourselves in masks and gloves. I want to be able to be with a group of people and be together, without hiding anything, despite the pandemic, despite the isolation, despite the social distancing. All of us can be together and we are strong, we are surviving.”
“I am currently isolating and social distancing in the town of Ramapo, NY 45 minutes North of New York City, one of the hardest hit in the US. A family member who lives near me is recovering now from COVID-19. I, like many, have been pretty stifled and constrained by this crisis. My ability to make my art has stopped, but I still felt the need to connect and create. At first I could not motivate, but with this new series using video conferencing, came the ability to connect again with a global community.”
— Spencer Tunick
Name: Matthew Richardson
Location: South Carolina, U.S.A.
Nationality: U.S.
Occupation: Ops Tech/IT Support Assistant
Age: 36
Gender: Male
“I've always felt that your work does an amazing job of normalizing the human body, ALL bodies, by representing the best parts of humanity, what we can create when we come together for a positive purpose. You and others have inspired me to pick up a camera and use that to uplift others through photography. I planned my first photography project for later this year and was set to travel and meet others I’ve met online who wanted to participate, but unfortunately social distancing has put this on hold. Your project feels like a good way to still be able to create even in this time of isolation.”
Name: Ana Gabriela Torres
Location: Mexico City
Nationality: Mexican
Occupation: Doctor
Age: 36
Gender: Female
“Coronavirus isolation made me realize how lucky I am. I find it meaningful that these challenging times give us a chance for our best selves to emerge. It is from these moments of silence and reflection that we can truly find out who we are and what we hold dear. Every challenge carries a valuable lesson. In this case, the old saying is true: ‘You don't know what you have until its gone….’”
Name: Rosana
Location: Patagonia, Argentina
Nationality: Argentinian
Occupation: Teacher
Age: 38
Gender: Female
“I am writing from La Patagonia. Thanks for inviting me to participate. I live in a very small town at the end of the world with a population of 8,000 people. This is a dream come true.”
Name: Anonymous
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Nationality: Australian
Occupation: Nurse
Age: 36
Gender: Female
“I'm a nurse. I feel like people are feeling scared and more disconnected than ever. I feel like this is an opportunity to reach out and be part of something bigger, even bigger than the local community, it's a global community. Life is too short to stress about the naked body... especially when your job is swabbing covid patients!”
*These Stay Apart Together stories have been edited for brevity.
Spencer Tunick
About Spencer Tunick
(Middletown, New York, 1967)
He lives and works in New York.
Spencer Tunick has been documenting the live nude figure in public, with photography and video, since 1990. He has organized 95 temporary site-related installations that encompass dozens, hundreds or thousands of volunteers, and his photographs are records of these events. Spencer Tunick's body of work has helped define or at least clarify the social, political and legal issues surrounding art in the public sphere. Determined to create his work on the streets of New York, the artist filed a Federal Civil Rights Law Suit against the city to protect himself and his participants from future arrests. In May 2000, the Second U.S. district court sided with Tunick, recognizing that his work was protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. On June 3 of the same year, in response to the city's final appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in favor of Tunick by allowing the lower court decision to stand and the artist to freely organize his work on New York City streets. His temporary site-specific installations have been commissioned by the XXV Biennial de Sao Paulo, Brazil; Institut de Cultura, Barcelona; The Saatchi Gallery; MOCA Cleveland; Vienna Kunsthalle (2008) and MAMBO Museum of Modern Art, Bogota (2016), among others. Tunick is included in the upcoming 2021 Socle du Monde Biennale at the Heart Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark.
Artist website: spencertunick.com
Artist Instagram: @spencertunick
Artist Facebook: @spencertunick
His two books Participant and Reaction Zone are available at spencertunick.com/books.
The Stay Apart Together project is curated and produced by Alonso Gorozpe and Studio 333 in Merida, Mexico.
Studio 333 is an art and performance studio founded by multimedia artist and curator Alonso Gorozpe. Alonso has staged public performances in both Mexico City and New York City and has recently collaborated in public art projects with the Queens Museum, El Museo del Barrio and the Guggenheim Museum.
For more information follow: @studio___333.