above: a close up look reveals the twisted and painted human figures comprising the image
Body painting illustrator /artist Emma Hack put her talents to work for MAC, South Australia's Motor Accident Commission for an anti-speeding campaign. The billboard and internet ad, "Body Crash" features 17 humans painted to appear as a wrecked non-descript sedan and was conceived of by Clemenger BBDO, an Australia-based advertising agency.
above: the outdoor board for Australia
“It had to be slightly nondescript as it was portrayed crashed,” Ms. Hack wrote to Wheels in an e-mail. The artist selected athletes, bodybuilders and members of acrobatics teams to fulfill the technical requirements. “They are used to holding weight and their fatigue level would be higher,” she said.
The subjects also had up to five layers of makeup-based paint applied to their bodies.
“As far as I can see it actually hasn’t been done before, this whole 3-D element of having people stacked on top of each other,” Ms. Hack said about the project.
A behind the scenes video of the project:
At the outset, Ms. Hack executed a sketch of the car to determine the number of people that would be required, as well as the approximate placement of the bodies. “The side mirror would be a head and the tires would be people rolled up,” she said. “Once I started sketching those people on the drawing, everything sort of piled up and made sense.”
The photo shoot lasted 18 hours and up to five layers of paint were applied to each of the 17 male and female bodies.
images courtesy of MAC/artist Emma Hack and photographer Jacqui Way
