Just a week after coaxing 5,200 Australians to pose naked on the steps of Sydney Opera House, photographer Spencer Tunick has announced he will tackle an altogether chillier and more industrial location: Salford.
To mark its 10th anniversary, the city's Lowry has commissioned Tunick to create a one-off response to the artist who gave the gallery its name. But where LS Lowry depicted the folk of Lancashire in cloth caps, bowler hats and workers' clogs, Tunick is calling for 1,000 "everyday people" to leave their clothes behind and pose for a series of large-format photographs in eight different locations around Salford and Manchester in early May. The images that result will be exhibited at the gallery from 12 June.
Michael Simpson, the Lowry's head of visual arts and engagement, said: "Tunick's work not only reflects and records the landscape of an area, but also its people. This exhibition celebrates our achievements and signals our continuing ambition."
Tunick has created nude installations featuring ever-larger groups of people in locations as varied as Sao Paulo, Barcelona, Cleveland, Ohio and Vienna. He said that working in Salford and Manchester was an "intriguing prospect".
He added: "LS Lowry's paintings, depicting the mass of everyday people who contributed to the industrial machine of the 20th century, also provide an interesting frame of reference in terms of the compositional possibilities of the installations."
The press release reassures wannabe participants that they are taking steps to deal with the possibility of a chilly northern May bank holiday: participants will be ferried between the different locations in "heated buses", it says.
Volunteers can now register their interest in participating at thelowry.com/tunick
