Brits get naked
2005-07-17 16:54
London - The famously fun-loving city of Newcastle in northeast England is no stranger to public nudity, but it is mainly carried out in the name of excessive drunkenness rather than art.
In contrast, around 1 500 people stripped naked on Sunday at various locations around the city centre for the latest work by US artist Spencer Tunick.
Tunick previously got 7 000 people to bare all in Barcelona in 2003, also photographing 4 000 naked people in Melbourne and 500 or so who braved the escalators of London's famous Selfridges department store while in the buff.
From 04:00 on Sunday, the latest volunteers - including some die-hard Tunick fans who have taken part in his works around the world - gathered at the Baltic Gallery in Gateshead, just across the River Tyne from Newcastle city centre.
Herded
They were then herded around for pictures at five locations, including across the Millennium Bridge, lying down at the quayside and walking through the city centre, one of Britain's most famous nightlife hotspots.
"I needed 1 500 people to make this installation work and so I am happy with that," Tunick said afterwards.
"I had to fill up Dean Street and I needed enough to make a thin sliver of bodies. I got everything I needed and more."
One participant, 36-year-old schoolteacher Kenny Jamieson, taking part with his wife, pronounced the experience "cold, but bearable".
"If I hadn't done it I would have been annoyed that I had missed it," he said.