Artist Spencer Tunick has been documenting the live nude figure in public, with photography and video, since 1992. Since 1994 he has organized over 75 temporary site-specific installations in the United States and abroad. Tunick's installations encompass dozens, hundreds or thousands of volunteers; and his photographs are records of these events. The individuals en masse, without their clothing, grouped together metamorphose into a new shape. The bodies extend into and upon the landscape like a substance. These grouped masses which do not underscore sexuality become abstractions that challenge or reconfigure one's views of nudity and privacy. The work also refers to the complex issue of presenting art in permanent or temporary public spaces.
