Spencer Tunick's all-nude art makes us rethink things.
When stripped raw, literally, society's hypocrisy is exposed and its bubbles of self-righteousness are pricked. His latest piece, Mardi Gras: The Base, with 5200 participants aged from 2 months to over 80 wearing nothing but their personalities, proves the point.
After photographing individual nudes in New York in the 1990s, Tunik used ever-larger "living sculpture" groups.
In 1995 at New York's United Nations building, police were completely shocked as 28 nudies made political points about genocide in Rwanda.
In May 2007 a record 18,000 posed bare-skinned in Mexico and in October 2009 he collaborated with Greenpeace in the vineyards of Macon, France, with his au naturel art highlighting the devastating impacts of climate change on agriculture.
He moulds people's bodies like public plasticine, creating overall shapes, making political statements.
And he says "the base" of any truly free society is acceptance that everyone is equal.
"The political edge to this work was having gay and straight people posing together, arm to arm, leg to leg, in solidarity. Our bodies are equal; our souls are equal.
"I'm an advocate of gay marriage and equal rights for gays.
"By creating this interwoven, natural 'base' for the Sydney Opera House, it showed the fabric of Sydney as an open society: open to art, open to lifestyles, open to understanding and equality", he said.
A participant, Carolyn, completely naked, said she supports the cause although not gay.
"There's nowhere today you can use your naked body without turning it into a lifestyle", Tunick said. "The body is a living entity. It represents life, freedom, sensuality and is a mechanism to carry out our thoughts. A body is always beautiful to me."