The making of Everyday People

The Lowry has long admired the work of Spencer Tunick. The artist began documenting live nudes in public spaces in New York in 1992, while his first installation, two years later, featured 28 naked bodies lying in front of the city’s United Nations building. Since then the artist has gone on to produce almost 100 site-specific installations around the world, including this year’s Mardi Gras: The Base, an installation commissioned as part of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

As part of its tenth anniversary celebrations, The Lowry wanted to commission a momentous work of art, one that would celebrate and reflect its close relationship with the audiences who have made The Lowry such a success over the past decade. A new work by Spencer Tunick was the obvious choice, and Everyday People, Spencer Tunick at The Lowry was the result.  

Spencer Tunick has been working with curators at The Lowry since last summer, during which time the organisation has documented the artist’s creative and intellectual process. Over the next few months these pages will gradually fill with some of that documentation: the essays, interviews, videos, maps and photographs that illustrate how Spencer Tunick works. Curators and staff will record the artist’s fascination with LS Lowry and how the remnants of Manchester’s industrial past have influenced his installation in Salford and Manchester. They will also discuss some of the wider themes that lie behind Tunick’s work, from the frailty of the human body in the urban environment to the difficulties that surround presenting contemporary art in public spaces.

‘The Lowry has spent ten years delighting, engaging and challenging both local and national audiences with the very best in visual art and performance,’ says Michael Simpson, Head of Visual Arts & Engagement at The Lowry. ‘This commission celebrates our achievements and signals our continuing ambition.’

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