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Thousands strip naked in Hull for Spencer Tunick photographs Thousands strip naked in Hull for Spencer Tunick photographs
(about 2 hours later)
Thousands of people have stripped and been painted blue as they starred in a huge installation to celebrate Hull’s relationship with the sea. In the early hours of Saturday morning, 3,200 people from around the world gathered in Hull city centre, stripped naked and painted themselves blue in the name of art.
Hull city council said 3,200 people took part in the event – the largest of its kind ever to be staged in the UK by New York-based artist Spencer Tunick. The spectacle to celebrate the city’s relationship with the sea was arranged by the American photographer Spencer Tunick, famous for his installations featuring crowds of nude people, and was commissioned by the city’s Ferens Art Gallery for Hull’s UK city of culture celebrations next year. New-York based Tunick had been inspired by Hull’s maritime history and had body paints made in four shades of blue. Roads in the city centre were closed between midnight and 10am as the participants posed in historic locations.
Tunick’s Sea of Hull installation involved participants from 20 countries, including American Stephane Janssen, 80, who has posed for him on 20 previous occasions. Tunick said it had been one of the best turnouts he has seen for one of his shoots, and the best in the UK, beating Gateshead in 2005 and Salford in 2010. “I needed about 2,500 to 3,000 [volunteers] to do this work and 3,200 came. I was incredibly lucky to be able to fill up streets into the distance,” he said. Volunteers arrived at the meeting point in the city centre at 3am. They then stripped off and helped to paint each other. The crowds were then ordered into position through megaphones by Tunick’s assistants, who he calls “nude wranglers”, during the three-hour photo shoot.
The hundreds who gathered at dawn were daubed with four shades of blue body paint in celebration of Hull’s maritime heritage and then posed for a series of site-specific installations around some of the city’s best known historic locations. Tunick said the crowds of blue people were also a representation of the rising sea levels caused by climate change. “It’s the idea that the bodies and humanity is flooding the streets,” he said. “So there are many ways you can think about it. “I was very surprised to see so many older people take part and so many people who had problems walking – [with] wheelchairs, crutches, leg braces. It was like the end of a war in a way, but they were resilient and we had young and old and I am so thankful to them.
These included the former Queen’s Dock, now a city centre park, the Guildhall and the award-winning Scale Lane swing bridge over the river Hull. “There’s something about the body and how it’s juxtaposed with public space – the natural, soft vulnerable body that’s up against the concrete world – it creates a dynamic that interests me.” One volunteer was Stephane Janssen, 80, from the US, who has posed for Tunick 20 times. “I always say that it’s the least sexual thing that I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. “We are naked, but it is not important. We are equal. Big people, small people, all colours, all walks of life.”
Tunick’s latest work has been commissioned by Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery. It will be one of the highlights of the gallery’s programme in 2017, when Hull is UK city of culture. He said he did get a little chilly during the shoot, but added it was nothing compared to Tunick’s installation in Dublin in the summer of 2008. “That was frightening,” he said. “My children are very conservative. They don’t think it’s totally proper to have their father’s butt on a museum wall, but I love it.” Janssen said it will be the last time he takes part in one of Tunick’s works.
The council said Saturday’s turnout was the largest number of participants taking part in any of Tunick’s previous UK artworks, beating Gateshead in 2005 and Salford in 2010. Sarah Hossack, 30, a trainee teacher from Hull, said she was having second thoughts when her alarm went off at 1.30am on Saturday, but that it did not take long for her to get into the swing of things. “Everybody just got involved, so we didn’t feel like it was that weird,” she said. “When you see people with clothes on you’re like, ‘These people need to get naked.’”
Tunick said: “The Sea of Hull installation was one of the most fantastic projects I’ve ever done, and it was inspiring to be able to intertwine the city’s maritime heritage against an urban backdrop throughout the whole piece. Danielle Robilliard, 38, a social worker, also from Hull, said the experience was like being part of a special club. “I knew the experience itself was going to be great, but the point when you had to get naked in front of lots of people was terrifying, but actually within minutes in felt normal.”
“The photo incorporates some of the city’s unique locations including the architectural steel-structured masterpiece that is Scale Lane bridge, framed by Georgian and Victorian buildings, adding to the striking shots captured during the installation. Kirsten Simister, curator of art at the Ferens, said the gallery was thrilled by the turnout. “It took off like a rocket from day one with an overwhelming number of people signing up and we are delighted to see how Spencer has brought them together today to create some remarkable new images and unforgettable memories for themselves.”
“It’s always wonderful to see the various-sized people covered in paint walking through the streets of a city I admire. I’m looking forward to the exhibition of my final works made here in Hull in the spring of 2017.” Tunick’s photographs from the day will be exhibited in the refurbished gallery in 2017, when Hull is UK city of culture, and will be purchased for the Ferens’ permanent collection.
Kirsten Simister, curator of art for Ferens Art Gallery, said: “When we announced this back in March we were excited but we had no idea how many people here would respond.
“It took off like a rocket from day one with an overwhelming number of people signing up and we are delighted to see how Spencer has brought them together today to create some remarkable new images and unforgettable memories for themselves.”
Martin Green, chief executive and director of Hull UK City of Culture 2017, said: “Spencer Tunick is the first major artistic commission to be announced for 2017. The team at the Ferens Art Gallery have worked incredibly hard to bring this world-class artist to Hull, adding to the excitement of it being UK city of culture.
“It’s also a fantastic opportunity for people locally and further afield to be involved ahead of 2017 and I can’t wait to see the resulting images when they are unveiled at the gallery next year as part of an exciting exhibition.”