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Nude Department Store Opens
An enthusiastic crowd of around 600 previously unacquainted adults stripped off in the name of art at the Oxford Street department store in central London yesterday.
They came in all shapes, sizes and ages. Some were youthful and toned. Others were plump and greying. There were tall ones, skinny ones, white, brown and black ones.
A group waited among the Prada and Louis Vuitton handbags, a handful rode the escalators and others stood around in the luggage department. But for one small detail, it could have been any other busy shopping day at Selfridges.
The congregation of the great undressed began gathering at 6am to be part of an installation by the American artist Spencer Tunick.
Participants divested themselves of their clothing and their inhibitions to be photographed in various poses on the escalators and in the cosmetics, lingerie and accessories departments.
Mr Tunick, who aims to challenge accepted notions of nudity and privacy in his work, called the work Be Consumed.
Participants, all aged over 18, were promised a print of their efforts in return for their time.
Ellen Ritman, 51, a writer from London, was one of the volunteers. "I found it exciting and liberating. The feeling was one of calm enjoyment. At my age it was a perfect thing to do, to look at other people's bodies and mine, and to remember how beautiful we all are. His work is wonderful."
The reactions of curious shoppers and tourists who gathered at the well-guarded doors of the store were mixed. Some were shocked, most were amused and a couple hung around looking furtive. All sought a better view.
Mr Tunick, from New York, who advertised for the latest volunteers on his website (spencertunick.com) and in Time Out magazine, has persuaded tens of thousands to strip for more than 50 installations across the world during the past decade.
Two weeks ago he photographed around 200 naked volunteers at County Hall on London's South Bank at the opening of Charles Saatchi's new gallery.
Selfridges paid Mr Tunick a five-figure sum to have its flagship store used in the work as part of its month-long Body Craze series of events and exhibitions.
Mr Tunick said: "I was able to use the interior of the store to capture the anonymity of public and private spaces. The idea was to bring the body up against commerce and create a tension between them."
He added that he would not have been able to do the same work in his home country. "I'd have been kicked out if I tried to do this in Macy's or Bloomingdales in New York, and I'd probably be arrested or thrown into the pet section if I did it in K-Mart."
Charles Saatchi, notorious for not attending his own parties, instead sent his girlfriend Nigella Lawson to be a "live sacrifice" at the launch of his new art gallery last night.
Friends said the multi-millionaire collector was "at home rearranging his sock drawer" while 1,500 guests from the worlds of art, fashion, television and politics gathered to celebrate the opening of his collection of Young British Art at County Hall on the South Bank in London and to witness the creation of a new work of art involving dozens of naked volunteers.
Lawson, famous on both sides of the Atlantic as the "Domestic Goddess" television chef, wearing a black Vivienne Westwood dress and silver Gina mules, seemed resigned to her role. She said: "As I came in and was set upon by 400 paparazzi, I did think: 'The things you do for love.' ".
Many of the 80 works on show are already well known from the Royal Academy's Sensation exhibition of 1997. But with Damien Hirst, one of the leading exhibitors, having dismissed the new gallery as old hat, perhaps one of the most controversial item on display last night was the guest list.
The stars of the ITV drama Footballers' Wives and assorted EastEnders actors brushed past Hirst's pickled shark and other icons of the Young British Artist phenomenon alongside the likes of Jonathan Aitken, the Marquess of Bath and Sarah Brown, without her Chancellor husband.
Hirst, whose work currently dominates the gallery despite his opinion of it, was away in South America. But Tracy Emin, whose unmade bed littered with cigarette ends and vodka bottles is another of the most famous exhibits, lived up to her reputation by rushing straight out to the County Hall members terrace for a cigarette as soon as she arrived.
This site also provided the artistic high point of the evening when the artist Spencer Tunick reprised his speciality in getting lots of people to take their clothes off and then photographing them. Last night, 350 people volunteered to go naked for him on the members terrace at dusk.
Tunick, 35, jetted in from New York to take his pictures in London after first recruiting his nudes through an advert. Tourists on the London Eye millennium wheel were in prime position to get a grandstand view of the photo shoot, which was directly opposite the Houses of Parliament. The actor Stephen Fry said: "It's good to have an artistic reason for watching this sort of thing, and you don't have to pay Soho prices."
They came in all shapes, sizes and ages. Some were youthful and toned. Others were plump and greying. There were tall ones, skinny ones, white, brown and black ones.
A group waited among the Prada and Louis Vuitton handbags, a handful rode the escalators and others stood around in the luggage department. But for one small detail, it could have been any other busy shopping day at Selfridges.
The congregation of the great undressed began gathering at 6am to be part of an installation by the American artist Spencer Tunick.
Participants divested themselves of their clothing and their inhibitions to be photographed in various poses on the escalators and in the cosmetics, lingerie and accessories departments.
Mr Tunick, who aims to challenge accepted notions of nudity and privacy in his work, called the work Be Consumed.
Participants, all aged over 18, were promised a print of their efforts in return for their time.
Ellen Ritman, 51, a writer from London, was one of the volunteers. "I found it exciting and liberating. The feeling was one of calm enjoyment. At my age it was a perfect thing to do, to look at other people's bodies and mine, and to remember how beautiful we all are. His work is wonderful."
The reactions of curious shoppers and tourists who gathered at the well-guarded doors of the store were mixed. Some were shocked, most were amused and a couple hung around looking furtive. All sought a better view.
Mr Tunick, from New York, who advertised for the latest volunteers on his website (spencertunick.com) and in Time Out magazine, has persuaded tens of thousands to strip for more than 50 installations across the world during the past decade.
Two weeks ago he photographed around 200 naked volunteers at County Hall on London's South Bank at the opening of Charles Saatchi's new gallery.
Selfridges paid Mr Tunick a five-figure sum to have its flagship store used in the work as part of its month-long Body Craze series of events and exhibitions.
Mr Tunick said: "I was able to use the interior of the store to capture the anonymity of public and private spaces. The idea was to bring the body up against commerce and create a tension between them."
He added that he would not have been able to do the same work in his home country. "I'd have been kicked out if I tried to do this in Macy's or Bloomingdales in New York, and I'd probably be arrested or thrown into the pet section if I did it in K-Mart."
Charles Saatchi, notorious for not attending his own parties, instead sent his girlfriend Nigella Lawson to be a "live sacrifice" at the launch of his new art gallery last night.
Friends said the multi-millionaire collector was "at home rearranging his sock drawer" while 1,500 guests from the worlds of art, fashion, television and politics gathered to celebrate the opening of his collection of Young British Art at County Hall on the South Bank in London and to witness the creation of a new work of art involving dozens of naked volunteers.
Lawson, famous on both sides of the Atlantic as the "Domestic Goddess" television chef, wearing a black Vivienne Westwood dress and silver Gina mules, seemed resigned to her role. She said: "As I came in and was set upon by 400 paparazzi, I did think: 'The things you do for love.' ".
Many of the 80 works on show are already well known from the Royal Academy's Sensation exhibition of 1997. But with Damien Hirst, one of the leading exhibitors, having dismissed the new gallery as old hat, perhaps one of the most controversial item on display last night was the guest list.
The stars of the ITV drama Footballers' Wives and assorted EastEnders actors brushed past Hirst's pickled shark and other icons of the Young British Artist phenomenon alongside the likes of Jonathan Aitken, the Marquess of Bath and Sarah Brown, without her Chancellor husband.
Hirst, whose work currently dominates the gallery despite his opinion of it, was away in South America. But Tracy Emin, whose unmade bed littered with cigarette ends and vodka bottles is another of the most famous exhibits, lived up to her reputation by rushing straight out to the County Hall members terrace for a cigarette as soon as she arrived.
This site also provided the artistic high point of the evening when the artist Spencer Tunick reprised his speciality in getting lots of people to take their clothes off and then photographing them. Last night, 350 people volunteered to go naked for him on the members terrace at dusk.
Tunick, 35, jetted in from New York to take his pictures in London after first recruiting his nudes through an advert. Tourists on the London Eye millennium wheel were in prime position to get a grandstand view of the photo shoot, which was directly opposite the Houses of Parliament. The actor Stephen Fry said: "It's good to have an artistic reason for watching this sort of thing, and you don't have to pay Soho prices."
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