Protestors rally amid preparations for the arrival of visitors and delegates for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 17, 2016/AFP
CLEVELAND, United States, Jul 18 – More than a hundred women stripped and posed naked with mirrors in Cleveland, answering a photographer’s call to blend art with politics and portray Donald Trump as unfit for the White House.
They gathered on the eve of the Republican National Convention, where the brash New York billionaire will be anointed the party’s nominee for president after winning a raucous primary race despite alarm from the party establishment and the country at large about his divisiveness.
“He is a loser,” photographer Spencer Tunick told AFP after the sunrise shoot in which 130 women took part. One hundred of them will be featured in the picture to be unveiled shortly before the November 8 election.
The installation took place on private property in sight of the arena where the convention kicks off on Monday, the focus of multiple groups of protesters expected to take to the streets this week.
The owner gave permission, said Tunick, and so while public nudity in Cleveland is illegal, it was not possible for police to intervene.
Entitled “Everything She Says Means Everything,” the photo art featured women of all shapes, colours and sizes participated, holding up mirrors toward the arena.
Tunick’s website said the mirrors reflected “the knowledge and wisdom of progressive women and the concept of ‘Mother Nature’… onto the convention centre, cityscape and horizon of Cleveland.”
The artist is well known for his sometimes startling images of nude people. But Tunick told AFP he thought it was his most political shoot ever, saying he felt compelled to take action.
Just voting against Trump at the ballot box in November was not enough.
“I have two daughters and a wife,” he said. “I can’t believe the language and rhetoric of hate against women and minorities coming from the Republican Party.”
He said he had to do something to counter “this idiotic thinking.”
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