Work Title: Show
Artist:Vanessa Beecroft
Media: Fashion models in black bikini underwear
Year: 1998
Image Links: Show 1, Show 2
Exhibition History: http://www.vanessabeecroft.com/frameset.html
Artist Statement:
"I identify with the girls, being hard and desensitized, and eventually resurrecting. What I like about the sculpture is that it is impenetrable: you cannot access or possess her."
Artist:Vanessa Beecroft
Media: Fashion models in black bikini underwear
Year: 1998
Image Links: Show 1, Show 2
Exhibition History: http://www.vanessabeecroft.com/frameset.html
Artist Statement:
"I identify with the girls, being hard and desensitized, and eventually resurrecting. What I like about the sculpture is that it is impenetrable: you cannot access or possess her."
Curator Comments:
For Vanessa Beecroft’s 1998 performance, Show, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, she chose a very modern form of “sculpture”. Italian-born Beecroft arranged and posed fashion models, some nude and some wearing black underwear, in a triangular formation. This “tableau” presented “living and breathing women” (McDaniel and Roberston 87). However, since the models were all thin and similar in height, most all of them the same body proportions, the ending, massive grouping of the women “appeared bizarrely dehumanized”, lacking the “individuality we expect to see in crowds” of that size (McDaniel and Roberston 87).
The purpose of Show is to represent the “deconstruction” of the ideal female body suggested by the media, pop, and consumer culture (McDaniel and Roberston 87). Since the media is so powerful in our contemporary culture today, it is very heavily present in movies, magazines, and music. The media creates a type of “perfect” woman: tall and slender, and getting skinnier by the minute. An unachievable, unrealistic woman, that every woman in America strives to look like.
What is interesting about this performance is how Beecroft treats her models. As Art Magazine Parkett explains “there is a ‘cruel classicism’ to her aesthetic: she makes the girls stand for up to three hours in uncomfortable high heels, sometimes several sizes too small”, she forces the models to shave their pubic hair “to make their public violation more complete”, and she gives them very strict rules: “don’t talk, don’t move, don’t make eye contact with the audience” (Dare to Bare: Vanessa Beecroft). Her demeanor is like a metaphor of the modern woman trying to achieve this “perfect female body”—she has to go through so much pain and ridicule, only to, in the end, look like everyone else trying to achieve the same, media driven figure.
For Vanessa Beecroft’s 1998 performance, Show, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, she chose a very modern form of “sculpture”. Italian-born Beecroft arranged and posed fashion models, some nude and some wearing black underwear, in a triangular formation. This “tableau” presented “living and breathing women” (McDaniel and Roberston 87). However, since the models were all thin and similar in height, most all of them the same body proportions, the ending, massive grouping of the women “appeared bizarrely dehumanized”, lacking the “individuality we expect to see in crowds” of that size (McDaniel and Roberston 87).
The purpose of Show is to represent the “deconstruction” of the ideal female body suggested by the media, pop, and consumer culture (McDaniel and Roberston 87). Since the media is so powerful in our contemporary culture today, it is very heavily present in movies, magazines, and music. The media creates a type of “perfect” woman: tall and slender, and getting skinnier by the minute. An unachievable, unrealistic woman, that every woman in America strives to look like.
What is interesting about this performance is how Beecroft treats her models. As Art Magazine Parkett explains “there is a ‘cruel classicism’ to her aesthetic: she makes the girls stand for up to three hours in uncomfortable high heels, sometimes several sizes too small”, she forces the models to shave their pubic hair “to make their public violation more complete”, and she gives them very strict rules: “don’t talk, don’t move, don’t make eye contact with the audience” (Dare to Bare: Vanessa Beecroft). Her demeanor is like a metaphor of the modern woman trying to achieve this “perfect female body”—she has to go through so much pain and ridicule, only to, in the end, look like everyone else trying to achieve the same, media driven figure.
Bibliography:
"Dare To Bare: Vanessa Beecroft." Interview by Andrea Harner. Web log post. Andrea Harner. 23 Mar. 2005. Web.
<http://www.andreaharner.com/archives/2005/03/dare_to_bare_vanessa_beecroft.html>.
Picard, Charmaine. "Vanessa Beecroft Reveals All." The Art Newspaper. Umberto Allemandi, 6 Mar. 2009. Web. 24 Mar.
2010. <http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=17083>.
Robertson, Jean, and Craig McDaniel. Themes of Contemporary Art. Second ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
Vanessa Beecroft. Show. 1998. Performance. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. <http://img.timeinc.net
/time/europe/fashion/0902/images/beecroft.jpg>.
Vanessa Beecroft. Show. 1998. Performance. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Web. 28 Apr. 2010.
<http://kosearaspost1930.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/vanessa-beecroft.gif>.
"Dare To Bare: Vanessa Beecroft." Interview by Andrea Harner. Web log post. Andrea Harner. 23 Mar. 2005. Web.
<http://www.andreaharner.com/archives/2005/03/dare_to_bare_vanessa_beecroft.html>.
Picard, Charmaine. "Vanessa Beecroft Reveals All." The Art Newspaper. Umberto Allemandi, 6 Mar. 2009. Web. 24 Mar.
2010. <http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=17083>.
Robertson, Jean, and Craig McDaniel. Themes of Contemporary Art. Second ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
Vanessa Beecroft. Show. 1998. Performance. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. <http://img.timeinc.net
/time/europe/fashion/0902/images/beecroft.jpg>.
Vanessa Beecroft. Show. 1998. Performance. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Web. 28 Apr. 2010.
<http://kosearaspost1930.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/vanessa-beecroft.gif>.
