- may 2000 -

the gagosian gallery showed the 43rd performance by vanessa beecroft
"VB 43". the one evening event (09.05.2000) is the first solo project by
beecroft in the uk. it's art; it's fashion. it's good; it's bad. it's sexist;
it's not. it's vanessa beecroft's performance art. the primary material
in her work is the live figure, which remains ephemeral, separate
and unmediated by any device we normally accept as artform,
such as painting or photography. a person standing still is never completely
motionless, she has a special sense of the incestuous interplay between
repetition an variation. her installation creates an image which is moving in
slow time; the women look like the cover of the "valley of the dolls" -
soundtrack album. queens of outer space, half helmut newton
and half armee of blond dominatrixes.
naked girls in high heels and implicit instructions : don't talk,
don't move too fast, don't move too slow. be classic. don't act.
here, nudity becomes its own kind of outfit, not unlike the old
emperor's new clothes fairy tale. high heels give legs their line and
nude women aren't really nude if they wear them.
pale-skinned models and no accents on the women's personalities,
nor is any emphasis on femininity intended. one model is almost
resembling another, nudity is a form of clothing.
the use of a uniform - a particular hair color, shoe or shade of pantyhose -
creates the illusion of integration. and beecroft's uniform has evolved
into nudity. what could be more unifying and neutral than naked ?
"beauty creates shame," beecroft claimed "...I want women on heels
because that’s powerful, that’s not natural nudity or pureness," she explains.
"when men see this woman standing on heels as if she were dressed,
and facing the audience, well, if that’s what they like to see, then here it is,
so what. I don’t know if that will create more respect or go
somewhere beyond that. maybe after they see it twenty times they’ll start
not to think of it the same way, I’m not sure. it’s an experiment."
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vanessa beecroft was born in genoa, italy in 1969 and now lives
and works in brooklyn, new york. her education :
1983 - 1987 architecture, civico liceo artistico nicolo’ barabino, genoa,
1987 - 1988 painting, accademia ligustica di belle arti, genoa.
1988 - 1993 stage design , accademia di belle arti di brera, milan.
her performance works that feature the installation of groups of
young women, and more recently military men have been hosted by
museums and galleries throughout the world.
in spring 2000, beecroft's performance "VB 42 intrepid:
the silent service" has been included in the whitney biennial.
1999
museum of contemporary art, san diego
(in cooperation with the united states navy seals commander
naval special warfare command)
museum of contemporary art, sydney,
galerie deux, tokyo,
galleria massimo minini, brescia, italy.
galerie analix, geneva,
spiral TV , wacoal art center, tokyo,
1998
invitational art event : "show" at the guggenheim museum, new york
( twenty models costumed by tom ford for gucci )
and
galerie ghislaine hussenot, paris,
fondation cartier pour l’art contemporain, paris,
galerie für zeitgenössische kunst, leipzig,
solomon r.guggenheim museum, new york,
galerie axel morner, stockholm,
moderna museet, stockholm,
---
among the many venues where her work has been shown in
the past few years are:
museum of contemporary art, san diego;
wacoal art center, tokyo;
galleria d'arte moderna, bologna;
venice biennale, italy;
institute of contemporary art, london;
site santa fe, new mexico
stedelijk van abbemuseum, eindhoven, netherlands.
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periodicals
vanessa beecroft and friend (subscription), artforum, vol. XXXVII no. 8,
april 1999 new york, ny.v.
beecroft, the new underworld, interview, november 1998 new york, ny.
v. beecroft, flash art XXXI years, flash art international vol. XXXI no.201,
summer 1998 milan, italy.
w. koestenbaum, bikini brief, artforum no.10, summer 1998 new york, ny.
a.a., vanessa beecroft, der spiegel, may 1998 hamburg, germany.
r. tatley, vanessa beecroft, dazed & confused no.38, january 1998 london, uk.

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