Famed American artist and photographer Spencer Tunick will soon arrive in Australia for another mass nude photo shoot – and we’re all invited to take part.

To get everyone in the mood to be nude, Tunick is holding a projected video exhibition at Brisbane Powerhouse, featuring some of the work he shot in Brisbane last year.

That one was called Tide and was created in November 2023 as a precursor to the work he will be shooting next month, featuring thousands of naked people on the Story Bridge.

Tide is the perfect prelude to Rising Tide, the monumental second installation that Tunick is creating for Melt Festival 2024, which will take place across Brisbane’s iconic Story Bridge on Sunday, October 27.

The bridge will be temporarily closed for this major art event, which will feature thousands of live nude figures in celebration of diversity, equity, inclusion and Brisbane’s vibrant LGBTQIA+ community and allies.

Tunick is still seeking participants for Rising  Tide on October 27. Each selected participant will receive a print of the final artwork, taken by Tunick, as a gift of appreciation from Brisbane Powerhouse and Melt.

Submissions for Spencer’s previous Brisbane installation Tide will be automatically included in Rising  Tide.

This year marks the artist’s 30th anniversary of documenting the live nude figure in public with photography and video, boldly using bare bodies en masse to create landscapes that flow, contort and meld together.

Tunick has organised more than 100 installations around the globe using dozens, hundreds or thousands of participants, his camera recording these captivating art events.

In 2010, he organised a mass nude shoot at the Sydney Opera House.

Entitled The Base, that latest installation was created during Sydney’s Mardi Gras 2010 festival.

The Base featured 5200 people in front of the Sydney landmark. Photo: Spencer Tunick

The artist has signed on to collaborate with Brisbane Powerhouse on two major projects.

Brisbane Powerhouse and Melt Festival are presenting Tide, Spencer Tunick’s first Australian exhibition, from September 28. This projected video exhibition is from his Tide series, created during that visit last year.

“Creating Tide was a very special experience, and I hope the exhibition will speak to diverse groups of people,” Tunick says. “It is a privilege to be making art that centres on the LGBTQIA+ community with all its beauty and vibrancy.”

His aim was to produce an installation celebrating diverse bodies and one that represents a more accepting and equal future. Tunick’s striking and surreal photographic artworks of this intimate installation will be showcased in the Tide single channel video exhibition which includes footage and stories that capture the empowering and poignant experiences of those who participated.

Brisbane Powerhouse program manager and Tide and Rising Tide curator Emmie Paranthoiene says “many of the participants at Tide expressed the joy and positive power of acceptance they felt from taking part in the installation”.

“We hope that thousands more people will have the same experience when Spencer creates Rising Tide on the Story Bridge,” she says.

Rising Tide, October 27, Story Bridge, Brisbane. Register to participate at: melt.org.au/spencertunick

The article first appeared in InReview. Read the original here.