365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 60 : Getting Naked With Spencer

I got naked in public today.

No, don't worry I didn't have a brain snap today, turn into a babbling idiot and disrobe on public transport. Fun though that might be....

What I did do, however, was volunteer to be photographed by world famous photographer and artist, Spencer Tunick, who was commissioned by Mardi Gras to create an art installation on the steps of the Opera House called 'The Base'. The distinctive element in all of Spencer's installations are naked people - and lots of them! - at famous landmarks and they don't come much more famous than the Sydney Opera House! 

So my gorgeous guy and I joined about 5200 other people, who created a traffic jam to rival peak hour along Macquarie Street at 4 a.m. (it took us 45 minutes to reach the car park) - see the photos (above) - including our good friend Stephen, and his friends John, and Debbie, and after waiting for just over an hour in the Botanic Gardens, just near the Opera House forecourt, and watching a beautiful lightening of the cloudy sky over the harbour in just 15 degrees with a brisk wind, we were given the order to disrobe, and surprisingly with 3000 other people doing it along with you - the other 2000 were in a separate group who were photographed in the concert hall as well on the steps of the Opera House - it was surprisingly un-traumatic, and was accompanied by whoops and hollers of excitement. We then surged through the gates back onto the forecourt, and by miracle or happenstance, ended up right at the front of the shoot, well in view of the media scrum behind the barriers, and just below Spencer's photographic tower.

The entire shoot took something like 2 hours as Spencer got us to fill in various 'holes' (not sure if the pun was intended but it gave us all a giggle) in the crowd who were directed to stand and lie in the shape of a triangle, and we were photographed looking towards him, our back to him and face the majestic sails of the Opera House, at angles to the House and facing the Bridge, and lying on our backs on the forecourt and steps, in an effect that was simply mesmerising with myriad shades of brown and white, and all tones inbetween creating a dappled ripple of humanity in front of Sydney's most famous landmark.

It was surprisingly non-sexual, and while I did see some gorgeous men's bodies, and far more female anatomy than I had planned to see in a lifetime, the focus was well and truly on creating this artwork, and nothing else. There was lots of laughter, and fun too, and a shared bond that we were all naked and the amazing leveler that it is. I have never felt more comfortable in my life, and certainly we all agreed later that it was the clothed volunteers around us that ended up looking odd, and not the masses of fellow naked people around us that looked so different, and yet so very much alike. 

To top it all off, we managed to get Grant Denyer, weatherman on 7's "Sunrise" program to strip down and join us for part of the shoot, and then my friend Stephen and I got interviewed later - with just our t-shirts off but all my friends assumed I was still naked! I shall let the assumption stand - by him during one of his weather updates. I was also photographed by more media reps than I can count and saw full frontal nude shots of myself filmed by the Sunrise photographer, as I stood just behind Grant Denyer. I have no idea if they will ever reach the internet but I am surprisingly relaxed about it, and really value the fact that we all shared this amazing experience, and created some sensational art and history in an event unlikely to be repeated in my lifetime.