This will liven up the morning commute.
Women crossed their arms and rubbed their hands to keep warm in the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal early Sunday, but it wasn’t because of the chilly October air. The women — all 450 of them — were nude. They were posing as part of a human art installation being photographed by New York-based artist Spencer Tunick.
I did photos for a while in high school and college -- yearbooks, etc. I never thought of this one.
Tunick has arranged nude installations in cities around the world, including London, Lisbon, Buenos Aires and Santiago. He’s been arrested several times in New York City for previous projects. "I wanted to bring the most beautiful people into the most beautiful building," Tunick said Sunday. He said he first sought permission to use the New York Public Library and the Museum of Natural History for the shoot but was rebuffed by both.
[Groan]
Women — all volunteers — arrived at Grand Central at about 3 a.m. Sunday, stripped off their clothes and composed their bodies into sculptural shapes and formations meant to imitate streets, buildings and cityscapes.
"Pardon me, when’s the next train to Altoona? 3 am you say? Great!"
Tunick took photographs from a stairway in the concourse. He shouted instructions through a megaphone, telling the women to form triangles and square with their bodies on the floor. The station was closed off to the public between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. The current installation is part of the artist’s "Naked World," in which he has been traveling the world, hoping to gather more than 35,000 people to pose in group installations. He uses both women and men in his photos, but said he chose to use only women in the Grand Central shoot because female nudity is more "easily digestible" than male nudity in the United States.
| He's right. When I consume nudity, I find the female flavor much more digestible. Gents' nudity gives me gas... |
A documentary about the "Naked World" project will air on HBO’s "America Undercover" series on Nov. 2. |