Among the many protests occurring around the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, photographer Spencer Tunick gathered 100 women for a nude project in a nearby riverside field despite the state’s nudity laws.
“The Republican Party has given an excuse to hate. We have daughters and we want them to grow up in a society where they have equal rights for women,” Tunick told them right before the project began at sunrise, according to the Washington Post. “The sun is coming up. Now, when I say, ‘three,’ let’s get naked.”
Photographer Spencer Tunick is seen with 100 volunteers outside Cleveland’s Republican National Convention (Lindsey Byrnes/Huffington Post).
The 100 women stood together holding mirrors towards the Cleveland Convention Center and the Republican delegates within, including their presidential nominee, Donald Trump.
Many of the women claim they have felt targeted by Trump himself for his antagonistic comments towards women. Others spoke against Republican-led legislation attacking their bodies and rights.
However, Tunick himself has made it very clear that the artistic piece, entitled “Everything She Says Means Everything,” is not a protest but an art action.
“A protest you go in knowing that there could be confrontation, and you’re willing to sacrifice for that confrontation,” he said. “An art action is more conceptual. I’m simply making art, making a statement, and disseminating information about what happened.”
Tunick says the most important piece of the art is the women and their ideas. He has been planning for three years to make this happen, long before the Republican nominee was a thought.
Prior to the event, over 1,800 women applied to be part of the project and each submitted a statement explaining why they wanted to be involved. One woman shared in the testimonial section of the artist’s website, “As a human being, I want to stand up against Trump and other Republicans whose hateful speech towards women, immigrants, LGBT people, and all ‘others’ is poisoning this nation.”
Others had different reasons, including a woman who wanted to remember her body during pregnancy and another who hoped the experience would help her heal after she was sexually assaulted, according to the Huffington Post.
One participant, a Cleveland native who normally votes Republican, was disgusted with Donald Trump’s invasion of the party, claiming he has brought bigotry to the forefront.
“There were a few people trying to scare me out of it,” she said. “A lot of people were saying, ‘My mom is going to kill me!’ But it was presented in a classy, peaceful way. Sometimes you just have to stand up for what’s right. I’m proud of what I did.”
Ultimately, Tunick shares that the project speaks to the strength of the women in each of their forms. “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.”
Volunteers were each issued mirrors, calling upon viewers to turn their gaze upon themselves as well (Timothy A. Clary/AFP).
Tunick has created similar public art installations in eight other countries. For the Cleveland piece, he wanted to show that, though they are central to campaign issues, there is nothing inherently controversial about women’s bodies.
Furthermore, a woman’s naked body should not be presumed sexualized, objectified, or prohibited by outside forces, but natural and empowering. The action conveyed each woman’s messages to the Republican National Convention through their willingness to escape their comfort zones. These messages became one when they stood together and expressed that their bodies matter just as much as their voices and actions.