US artist turns Melbourne rooftop into human installation piece

Melbourne, July 9 (IANS) A Melbourne rooftop carpark was turned into bright red on Monday for a photo shoot by New York artist Spencer Tunick, famous for his photographs of hundreds of nude bodies intersecting with urban environments and rural landscapes around the world.

Run in two groups over two days, the "Return of the Nude" human installation is part of the Provocare Festival of the Arts running until July 15 on the city's famous Chapel Street, reports Efe news.

All participants were to be given specially formulated cosmetic body makeup to apply themselves, according to the festival's website.

They then draped themselves in red transparent fabric and stood facing the same direction with their arms out, or laid down on the concrete.

"The poetic whole resulting from individual bodies arranged in a sculptural way in an urban setting challenge traditionally held views on nudity and privacy as well as social and political issues surrounding art in the public sphere," the festival's website said of the event.

Tunick, 51, is famous for his large-scale nude installations involving hundreds and sometimes thousands of volunteers in public locations around the world, including a Swiss glacier in 2007 and a vineyard in France in 2009 for Greenpeace, the Dead Sea in 2001, the Nevada desert in 2000 and in Mexican streets and fields for the Day of the Dead in 2012.

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