| |
Spencer Tunick, Vienna (Ernst Happel Stadion, Kunsthalle Vienna), 2008, c-print zwischen plexi, ed.3, 122 x 152 cm | | |
Spencer Tunick - primary arena
Vernissage: Thursday, 2nd October 2008, 7.30 p.m., the exhibition runs until 4th November, 2008
Spencer Tunickīs photographs often operate against the backdrop of architectural structures. In his recent Vienna artworks the artist integrated the massed soft forms with the harder, angular elements of stadium architecture. For the other Vienna works that he created in public places he chose to appropriate the goal nets and balls played with in football (soccer) and to use them as props to give the sports fan the idea of truly being immersed and "captured" by their obsession.
Although Tunick freely embraces the aesthetics of a sports event and consumer culture, there is an underlying political statement that comes from the mass gathering of people. In a time when political ideology is collapsing in favor of pragmatism, it is not surprising that Tunickīs work occasionally forms a catalyst to peaceful protest or becomes a vehicle to highlight issues such as global warming or HIV. Past locations have included a town square in Mexico City, a multi-storey car park in Amsterdam and outside the Sage Centre in Gateshead, UK, which became useful formal devices, where the repetitive nature of the architecture is echoed in Tunickīs composition of bodies.
Spencer Tunick was born in Middletown, New York in 1967. |
Send E-mail