The art installation was staged by New York artist Spencer Tunick. The work is called “Sea of Hull” and was commissioned by the Feren’s Art Gallery to mark the city’s celebration next year as the UK’s “City of Culture.”
Thousands of people gathered in the pre-dawn to strip naked and be coated with four different shades of blue body paint to represent water, reports the Gazette Times.
An estimated 3,200 people took part in #SeaofHull as @SpencerTunick created art on the streets of #Hull City Centre. July 9, 2016
The crowd was then posed in a number of locations around the city, including Queen’s Gardens, the Guildhall and the Scale Lane swing bridge. The bridge is sometimes compared to a pinball flipper and is a popular tourist attraction, according to CTV News Canada.
Stephane Janssen, 80-years-old, from Brussels, has posed for Tunick on 20 previous occasions. “It’s just aesthetically fantastic. It’s beautiful, we are little strokes of paint. Everybody is equal – no race nor sex difference – I mean, everybody is the same, naked…and that’s what I love,” he said.
Hull resident, Sarah Hossack, told the BBC she was thrilled to be a participant in the art installation, saying it was “absolutely fantastic, and just what the city needs”
“I’ve been naked since four o’clock this morning. But it was so much fun, so inclusive and just brilliant, like a festival atmosphere. We’ve all got closer together as people over the last few hours.”
Hull City Council says Tunick’s installation drew the largest number of participants than any of his previous UK artworks, surpassing Gateshead in 2005 and Salford in 2010.
Tunick said: “The Sea of Hull installation was one of the most fantastic projects I’ve ever done, and it was inspiring to be able to intertwine the city’s maritime heritage against an urban backdrop throughout the whole piece.”
City of Culture 2017
Being designated a “City of Culture” is likened to getting a feather in your cap if you are a city in the UK. Being rewarded with this designation means the city has demonstrated its belief in the transformational power of culture.
The prestigious designation is only given out every four years, and Hull was announced the winner of UK City of Culture 2017 in 2013. So for all of 2016, Hull has been putting its best foot forward, and in a big way.
Hull is celebrating its culture, both past, and present. Hull is a port city on the Humber River and has a rich maritime past dating to the 12th Century. So when Feren’s Art Gallery commissioned the artwork, “Sea of Hull,” it was supposedly part of the themed year, broken down into four seasons called Made in Hull, Roots and Routes, Freedom and Tell the World.
Well, “Sea of Hull” is certainly telling the world something, and from the excitement and comments made by the participants, it is all good.
