vanessa beecroft

she's the artist whose exhibition i went to see at the Gana Art Center in Pyeongchang-dong, Seoul the other day.

Photo Source: http://www.artnet.com/artwork/424333533/118842/vanessa-beecroft-vb47364dr.html

her art has been described as Hooters for intellectuals. in almost all her works you'll find naked woman, and lots of them, just standing around for hours, until they get tired and sit down or lie down. i'd guess her art is considered 'performance art' since it consists of living, acting human beings as they exist over a period of time. that period is usually a day i believe. from dusk to dawn.

Photo Source: http://www.artnet.com/artwork/424532260/179379/vanessa-beecroft-vb48-591a.html

her work was presented in photos at the Gana Art Center but recently she had a live show (or art performance) HERE in seoul! (i did not attend having heard about it after the fact) but seoul was not ready to see it's women naked in the name of art apparently (never mind the ubiquitous flyers that are handed out and placed in triplicate on the window shields of cars around the red-light districts showing women dressed in next to nothing advertising .... well not sure ... night clubs i would assume and, no, the "night clubs" here in korea are not the same as "night clubs" back in the states. here "night clubs" come with - paid for mind you - female "attention") so she had her korean participants clothed, though the clothes were skin colored leotards, nearly sheer and tight fitting so her piece was pushing some cultural boundaries here in korea. here's a pic from The Chosun Ilbo:

Photo Source: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200702/200702270021.html

also from the same source is this on the artist:

The child of a British father and an Italian mother, Beecroft was raised by her mother after her parents divorced when she was three. As an atheist, radical and single mother, her mother was treated as an outsider in a small Italian town full of faithful Catholics. Suffering from an obsession with food, Beecroft kept a diary of everything she ate for 10 years until 1993.

The Korea Times has an interview with (and picture of) the 38 year old artist on the opening day of her exhibit. In it she explains some of her thoughts behind her work.

some of my own observations of her work are that all her nude models had completely shave pubic areas and i really wonder what is the thought behind her model selection. she says that in the United States, she's hated by feminists but doesn't not offer any kind of response. there were other viewers at the exhibit the day i went but not many ... they were all korean guys and some were snickering like teenage boys with their first nudey magazine. sometimes i enjoy contemplating my own answer ... but this time i wonder what the artist would say if asked, "why?"...