The Base

First published on 27 Jan 2010. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

Internationally renowned artist Spencer Tunick has revealed that he will create an installation using thousands of nude Australians on the steps of the iconic Sydney Opera House on the morning of Monday 1 March.

The artist is calling on all Australians interested in taking part to register immediately at The Base to reserve a place.

Tunick’s installation, called ‘The Base’, will be one of the highlights of this year's Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival. Participation in the art installation however is open to all Australians, regardless of sexuality. All nude volunteers will be rewarded with an official Spencer Tunick photograph of 'The Base.

The US-based artist is the man responsible for gathering people by the thousand and getting them to strip, en masse, in the name of art. Using a sea of naked bodies as his medium, he moulds his groups of willing volunteers into abstract shapes, in various forms and locations, before capturing it on film. He’s attracted huge crowds the world round, including 7,000 in Barcelona, and 18,000 in Mexico City.

Spencer, your photographs are world-renowned. How did your definitive style start out?
It was a combination of looking at a lot of art that I liked, including performance art, and a lot of works from the 60s and 70s. And also from myself just photographing [nude] individual portraits on the street. After gaining an underground arts reputation for the series in New York, more and more people wanted to pose for me, I decided to take all these people who wanted to work for me and put them in one location.

And the initial reactions?
I did my first shoot in 1995 in front of the United Nations [in New York]. There was complete exuberance from the participants and complete shock from the police. Twenty-eight people posed to make a statement about genocide in Rwanda. The police didn’t arrest anyone, but helped me by diverting traffic to allow me to do the work, and they asked for a signed copy afterwards!

These days, people are lining up by the thousands to get their kit off for you, you lucky duck.
Wonderfully talented people pose for me, from art students, to doctors and lawyers. They all have this one common thread: that they want to do something different, something communal. They want to use their bodies but there’s no real escape. There’s nowhere today you can use your naked body without turning it into a lifestyle, like nudism. It’s also exhilarating to pose nude; it’s adventurous. Even the hippest of hipsters will feel like they’ve come out and done something new.

What’s the general reaction so far?
As far as participants go, most people like my work. It does have an effect on people and how they previously thought of themselves. But I wouldn’t really want everyone to like my installations. What’s the fun in getting naked when 100,000 people are turning up?

And your biggest rejection…
I once tried to contact a bears' club - you know, the furry older gentlemen - here in the US, but I don’t think they wanted to. They never returned my calls, like I was a freak. I was going to photograph them in the forest and nature, like a sort of Cézanne work. You sort of have to go to something that already exists and offer them the opportunity to make some art. Maybe I can do that in Australia. It’s hard to get groups of people who look specifically different.

What is 'The Base' all about?
I think the political edge to this work is about having gay and straight people posing together, arm to arm, leg to leg. Our bodies are equal, our souls are equal. It’s all about getting great people together and going beyond their limits. Tomas Ganderton