NUDE at the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION July 2016

Spencer Tunick called for woman volunteers, Democrat, Republican, or any other political platform on July 17, 2016, to interrupt business as usual at the RNC with a flood of nude bodies.

Over 1,800 women signed up to participate, each submitting a statement explaining their reason for getting involved. One wanted a way to remember her body during pregnancy, another hoped the experience would help her heal after she was sexually assaulted. Some wanted to accept and celebrate their aging bodies, others to leave a positive impact on their daughters.

100 women came together outside Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena the day before the convention to get naked. 

“Sometimes you just have to stand up for what’s right,” one of the women said.

During the shoot the naked women each held a large, round mirror above their head, reflecting the earth and sun and sky, as well as the fleshy forms of the manifold women around them, the communal power of womanhood, a force almost supernatural in its strength. 

Tunick explained, “The mirrors communicate that we are a reflection of ourselves, each other, and of, the world that surrounds us. The woman becomes the future and the future becomes the woman.”

One woman said, “I fought to hold in my tears as [Tunick] explained that we were gathered together to make a statement against the rhetoric of hatred that’s being spewed out from the Republican party; against the misogynistic, xenophobic, racist, anti-LGBTQ, ableist platform that has defined hating others as an acceptable American lifestyle.”

As the crowd disrobed, distinctions between bodies began to seem barely distinguishable and fully insignificant. “I was struck by the sameness of all the different bodies,” one expressed. “All kinds of shapes and sizes were present. We were old and young; we were mahogany and golden, pale and bronze and freckled. Some of us were sleek and lean and ‘unblemished’ by pregnancy and childbirth and years of breastfeeding. Others held decades’ worth of stories in their wrinkles and creases and folds. But, the most interesting affect of this collection of difference was its overwhelming sameness. I had to look closely to even notice who was fit and who was ‘fluffy’ because that kind of detail, or maybe categorization, became little more than background noise. Holding up the mirrors with the other undressed women, it was really special,” another said. “Seeing all the light reflected on all the bodies and faces. Everyone was so happy. We were proud.”

Tunick hoped his work would serve as an act of peaceful protest, combating the hateful rhetoric Donald Trump and his followers have directed at women, through the simple power of collective creation. 

The women joined together to show just how non-controversial a woman’s naked body is, rejecting the sexualisation, objectification and prohibition of the woman’s nude figure. Tunick’s images present the nude body as something natural, empowering, courageous and collaborative.