Talk About Body Image!
*Disclaimer*
All links in this post lead to some type of nakedness, but if you watch "Grey's Anatomy" or "Desperate Housewives" you'll find the links comparatively tame.
The lesson on Sunday went pretty well. We started first with talking about our bodies. And that God created us with bodies and that they are good. What a body feels and how it's constructed are all intended to reflect God and God's glory. It's hard to think of the body in that way when we live in a culture that seems to value the body in a more exploitive way. It was a great discussion and I hope that the teens took away from it that how they feel and are made is what God intended. And that God cares tremendously how we use our bodies.
Related to that, but not referenced in class, I recently became aware of some people that I know who posed for this large art installation in Grand Central several years ago in NYC. Here is an excerpt about the artist who staged the instillation from Wikipedia:
Spencer Tunick is an American photographer. Tunick was born in Middletown, New York [near Camp Shiloh]. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Emerson College in 1988. He is best known for his photographs that feature large numbers of nude people posed in artistic formations. In these images the nude form becomes abstract due to the sheer number so closely placed together. Known as Installations they are often situated in urban locations through out the world. In June 2003 he completed his largest photo by photographing 7000 Spaniards in Barcelona. On June 26, 2004 he completed his largest shoot in North America in Cleveland Ohio with 2,754 people posing.Kenny has a fantastic and in-depth post on Porn Vs. Art just in case you are interested in the role nudity plays in art. I see this as art and nothing remotely near pornography.
Ok that being said, I find it incredibly interesting that people would just show up en masse, take off their clothes in front of total strangers (which I guess is easier than in front of people you know), and then get in awkward positions to be photographed for the sake of art. Truthfully I find it really refreshing that people would do such a thing. I find the idea that people could be naked in such a manner and at such a scale that the nakedness isn't something that is sexual, but rather something that is human. That has to be the worst art critique in the world, but hopefully you get my point.
Say Spencer is coming to your big city and needs 4,000 people to come pose naked at [insert your current city landmark] no matter what the weather (apparently the Barcelona shoot was near freezing and I promise that Grand Central at 3 a.m. isn't the coziest place to be in the city). Would you do it? Would you take a friend (spouse) for moral support? If you say 'Yeah sure sign me up', what if while you were there milling around waiting for the art to commence you ran into someone you knew, and knew well like someone from your small group Bible study, or your parents or something. Would you go through with it?
4 comments:
Several folks who pose are Christian, including an Anglican vicar in Newcastle-Gateshead. To read accounts of those of us who pose, or to see some of Spencer's art come to www.spencertunickforum.org
Roger
Would you?
I would really like to in that theoretical "I participate in Art" kind of way. But I bet when it came time to commence with the art...I wouldn't be able to go through with it. Although if the shoot was all men, I wouldn't have nearly the hesitation I would if it were a mixed group.
Perhaps it's my American socialization regarding public nudity (anybody care to define what that socialization might be). I can't help but think in Europe or places like Brazil it's just not as big a deal to bear it all in public especially under the circumstances that Tunick is setting up.
Alisa, you crack me up. You are totally going to confuse your kids idea of who they think you are someday when you show them that picture and say "That's me right there!" It's a better rebellion than getting a tattoo!
nudity isn't much of a big deal in california, in my experience. my mom cut out paper swim trunks to stick to pictures of my nephew so she could show her friends in texas.
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