Artist Spencer Tunick is looking for 500 Irish people to pose naked for a large-scale photo shoot, and there's been a stampede to strip off. Have we lost our national modesty? Róisín Inglereports
WHERE'S GOK WAN when you need him? The presenter of Channel 4's How to Look Good Nakedwill have his work cut out for him if he pays a visit to Cork or Dublin in June, given the acreage of pasty skin and pink-cheeked mortification that's going to be on display.
Organisers of artist Spencer Tunick's impending abstract formation contemporary art installation thingy - naked mass photo shoot to you and me - confirm that more than 1,000 plucky people have already registered to have their picture taken without a stitch on them. One long-range weather forecast, incidentally, was this week predicting snow for June.
This stampede to strip off in the name of art has officially put the kibosh on the notion that we are a nation of prudes. Dev might be spinning, fully clothed, in his grave but the Irish no longer come out in a rash at the thought of removing our clothes in public. Back in the day, it was de rigueurto spend half the afternoon at the beach getting tangled up in a towel, as we tried to keep our modesty while changing out of our togs. Throw conceptual art into the equation and we're lepping over each other to borrow the Emperor's new clothes.
Confirming our new Let It All Hang Out attitude, The Sunrecently introduced readers to its first "totally Irish" Page 3 girl, Claire Tully from Blanchardstown in Dublin. Even former Miss World and daughter of Chris de Burgh Rosanna Davidson recently got her designer kit off for a photo shoot in an Irish newspaper.
It's not just Irish models who are embracing their inner Lady Godiva. Last September the female winner of the "Naked Run" at Denmark's Roskilde Music Festival - when, oh, when will this important discipline become an Olympic sport? - was revealed as a Trinity College student from west Cork. "My country's very prudish, we don't like nakedness," economics student Aoife Dineen told Danish television after her win. Well, Aoife, the times they have apparently changed.
Now, putting my Gok Wan hat on for a second, if we're all insisting on having our pictures taken en masse in the nip, there's a few things we need to, ah, bare in mind. Apart from our African and Asian neighbours who will add a much needed splash of colour to the photos, there's going to be an awful lot of freckled, translucent skin on show come June. Gok would surely encourage us to stock up on the fake tan or body make-up.
Wise participants will start practicing flattering naked poses in the mirror immediately, while the really clever ones will make sure to find someone larger than they are to pose beside on the day. The especially shy can get some quite realistic rubber masks in joke shops, which should provide a certain level of anonymity. Be aware though that organisers may well cop on that it's not actually George Bush squirming in his altogether.
Heading to the Cork event if you're a Dubliner, and to the Dublin event if you're from Cork, may diminish the likelihood of you enduring a conversation in the nude with someone, also nude, who either lives on your road or pays your wages. Morto.
And yet: "We've been amazed at the response," says Dara Leary from the Dublin Docklands Authority, which is organising the event with the Cork Midsummer Festival. "Although, in the artist's experience, there is a 50 per cent drop-off on the day, with people chickening out, or maybe the weather on the day might turn some people off. We are not looking for voyeurs or exhibitionists, just ordinary, everyday people who want to be part of a living piece of art."
Ordinary, everyday nude folk are all very well but, with clothes prices rising and the economy slowing down, Brian Cowen's advisers might spot a golden opportunity. In what would be one of his first official photo shoots as taoiseach, Cowen may choose to bravely lead the nation forward into a brand new era of watching the bottom line.
Sadly, that eventuality is probably about as likely as there being snow in June. Oh.
• To register for the project visit www.spencertunickireland.ie