‘Everyday People’ was commissioned to coincide with the 10th anniversary of one of Salford’s greatest assets & to reflect the painter, LS Lowry’s work & the industrial heritage of Salford and Manchester.
Tunick spent two days at the start of May working on his ‘naked body’ art installations, in eight different secret locations in and around Salford and Manchester, including The Lowry itself, Angel Meadows, Manchester Airport, Peel Park and Castlefield. 500 people were required per day and asked to pose under Tunick’s instructions.
A friend who participated in the shoots on the first day describes how some of it went, ‘We arrived at the Lowry in the early hours of the Saturday morning and it became clear that there were a handful of people who were a little worse for wear from the night before ~ some were stumbling around, but they managed to conduct themselves appropriately. There were some people who were ‘regulars’, having modelled at other previous installations like Gateshead a few years ago.’
‘When we turned up at Sharp Street, near the Ragged School, in the early hours of the morning, we accidentally disturbed a homeless person. He was extremely bewildered when he woke up to face hundreds of naked bodies looking at him. He swigged his can of beer and joked about what was in it, then proceeded to sing some Oasis songs, and then commented in admiration at the bodies!’
Each individual in these installations receives a special edition print of Spencer Tunick’s work in return for participating.
Certain photographs in the exhibition are, indeed, very Lowry-esque ~ his ‘matchstick’ figures effectively replaced by the naked human form. The photograph of the ‘over 55’s’ is noticeably reminiscent of Lowry’s work. We see only men in this picture, leaning towards one another and shaking hands by one of the old bridges, but with Beetham Tower in the background. As Tunick describes, ‘I wanted the modern architecture to shadow over the old. There is some humour in this work, but also sadness as well, to offset that. I tried to replicate the work of Lowry with his stick figures bending over, but done in a loose way. This photograph could almost be a Pink Floyd album cover!’
‘I think this exhibition is a departure from my earlier work. I love the car wash photograph and the reflection in the water ~ sometimes a little luck comes into hand with things like this. Something that set the work in Manchester and Salford apart from my previous installations is that I had never really separated the bodies before ~ that was a first for me.
One photograph shows the Lowry and Imperial War Museum as backdrop to the figures, but the image that arguably stands out from the others is the photograph of the women pressed up at the windows of the buses. Tunick had requested these heated buses for the 2 day shoot to transport people to each location. As he explained,
‘It is the only image with any sort of sexual connotation. It looks like the cover of a ‘70s Led Zeppelin album ~ the Beastie Boys are welcome to call me and use that image if they want!’
There is a documentary film that complements the photographs on show in a separate room at the Lowry. It shows everyone getting off the buses at one point and walking almost trance-like to the required locations, which is clearly reminiscent of Lowry’s stick figures leaving the factories and mills.
Tunick sums up, ‘I think it is a very successful video ~ it is without my voice and the people seem like they are not knowing why they are doing it. This is my favourite part of the process ~ I make the works for the exhibitions and I love standing in front of the finished pieces. It’s like a memory for me of a heightened moment.’ Everyday People opened at the Lowry on June 12th and will run until September 26th 2010. Free entrance.
Written by Alison Bell
Story designed and edited by Craig Nelson:
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