Vanessa Beecroft is an “artist” whose trip to Sudan is documented in a new film called “The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins.”
Beecroft evidently had no idea how damning this documentary would be. According to one review:
The doc cluster-bombs her faddish fascination with Sudanese orphans and paints Beecroft as a hypocritically self-aware, colossally colonial pomo narcissist. The film is brutally effective because it lets Beecroft hang herself with damaging quotes and appalling behavior.
Beecroft explains that the adoption will be” not just fetishization of the blacks. It will be a beginning of a relationship with that country.”
Ha.
In the film’s most disturbing scene, sisters from the orphanage try to stop her from stripping the children nude inside their abbey for an elaborate photo shoot.
Oh god, I can’t go on. You’ll have to read the reviews yourself. If you do a google search for images, you will see that this woman has been up to no good for a long time. She has an “artistic relationship ” of some kind with Kanye West, which is bound to reflect badly on both of them when the dust settles.
What a fucking, fucking cunt! She is everything I hate about everything, and then some.
I’m always baffled how artists justify their exotification of different cultures by hiding behind the veil of “art.” This is bullshit.
Wow. That is vile!
I read the review and not only is it so utterly damning but clearly the woman is such a cunt she is beyond any understanding. Vile.
there is no hope for humanity with this moral corruption peddled as art
Someone get this “artist” person to seek psychological help, please.
She basically admits near the end of the movie that she wanted the babies to inject exoticism into her life. Twisted.
jesus!! how is she a successful artist and not in a mental institution for some narcissistic disorder? life is not fair!
i’ll have to watch this doc- it looks priceless. i wonder is it a deliberate send-up of what a stupid cunt she is, or was the directer in thrall to her?
Is she trying to be evocative? Ugh. So uncalled for.
Isn’t this exactly what Madonna and Angelina did?
Great. One more privileged American who’s different from all the other privileged, culture-fetishising Americans out there because she’s aware that she’s being an assole.
Vanessa Beecroft is known for nudity and mass performance art which I honestly didn’t mind the idea of, but I think she’s crossed a moral event horizon here. At least Madonna and Angelina Jolie appear to be mothering their kids, not pimping them out for the sake of “art”- more than can be said for this nut job.
That photo alone is disturbing. I hate these wealthy talentless women that peddle themselves as artists. This is the worst.
So anyone can just adopt a child with enough money?
“Christ, these people,” Beecroft moans
Well that quote, says it all.
How disappointing! I think Sudan is a really interesting area & certainly orphans from any area should be important to all of us. A thoughtful documentary on the situation there (or the situation in the Congo!) could be really beneficial in increasing awareness. This one sounds more like a photo shoot. I won’t even waste my time reading the review.
I like the burnt hem of her dress, but I hate the idea of children as accessories.
Some people call their selfishness and a lack of shame art.
I hope those babies find happy lives.
Woah, this lady is a complete piece of work created by something evil. And the thing that kills me is that she is unapologetic. I guess you could say that is a somewhat positive thing? That she doesn’t hide her bigotry and asinine thinking. But I don’t want to give this woman any credit. Like you said, she has been in operation for sometime now. What a dumb (or smart) move to slander herself in a full length film.
That film came out in 2007; not saying she’s not a cunt, but it’s slightly more complex than this article makes it out to seem, and her awareness of “the representation of the demagogic attitude of the West” is part of the point of photo–she doesn’t THINK she’s some holy Madonna, she’s skewering the idea of the Westernized Madonna feeding “these poor creatures, to make herself feel good, when what is she giving–not much.”
I think the problem here is that her artistic aims are conflated with, and therefore conflict with, her personal agendas re: adopting the children. And she talks pretty freely about being OCD and about her awareness of using live humans as models.
Again, she’s probably a cunt, and she’s definitely crazily myopic and self-centered, but I don’t think she’s some total monster–like I said, if you see the film, it’s more nuanced than this.
Claudia- I have to disagree that Beecroft’s persona in the film is at all “nuanced.”
Whether or not she is completely and fully aware of her White Devil status does not negate from the fact that she willfully subjugates the Sudanese villagers to further her art career.
Even her husband had harsh things to say about her ambition and selfishness. The most poignant scene in the film for me was the moment at her exhibition in Venice, where she had painted, black female models lying on the floor writhing around in fake blood as a champagne sipping, uppercrust art crowd looks on smirking.
What does it all mean?!?! Was she desperate to obtain the twins to give credibility to her culture-raping projects, or did she really love them?
The filmaker was right to question the notion of artists using disenfranchised people to profit and glorify themselves.
Another art project that causes a considerable amount of debate in my house:
http://worldwidegreeneyes.com/category/heroines
Agggghhhhhhh.
i have to wonder, did she chose Sudan because of their greater contrast in skin color to her own vampire tone….?
and were they blinded by her $$$ to let her do this?
i don’t even know who that is but she certainly sounds like a cunt.
Off topic, but oh god oh god oh god… Help, Sister Wolf. The apocalypse _has_ to be fucking nigh.
And speaking of buying children, I see Mr and Mrs Nicole Kidman have purchased another child and there is mention of the previous daughter, allegedly brought forth by the star herself.
But what has become of the first two she purchased when she was with that pygmy lunatic? Not a peep about them in the item I read.
Any ideas?
We appear to be back in the days of the old movie stars adopting children on a whim, as long as they looked good in photo shots of course, and then dropping them when they actually needed some bringing up.
Shades of Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor et al. Apparently a great publicity stunt but quite boring after a while, espcially when the little tykes stop being cute.
There oughta be a law!
Andra – I’ve heard that the first two Cruisers are off at Scientology boarding school. One never knows.
Famous poeple. What a mishegas.
apparently the above photo sells for $50,000 a print…
Not to me it doesn’t!
I’m calling emperor’s new clothes – this is art because ‘who’ says so?
The people of Sudan have surely got enough to deal with.
Don’t buy this woman’s work – donate.
http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Emergency-response/Current-emergency-appeals/Darfur-Crisis-Appeal
Claudia – Not buying it.
Iron Chic – That project = Stupid and offensive, to me anyway.
Artful Lawyer – Mishegas, hahahaha.
E – Damn right. thanks for the link!
THE blacks.
Got it, Vanessa!
She’s truly hideous.
I saw these guys and thought of you…
http://twitter.com/#!/cuntoftheday
I resent her inflated ego and cruel disregard.
i’d like to not be painted as some kind of defender of Vanessa Beecroft, and i’m certainly not trying to sell anything.
i just wanted to mention that i remember this woman, and read a profile of her in the new yorker, oh.. 10 years ago? she horrified me, and managed to make the entire interview focus on her romanticized eating disorder. she mystified and disgusted me then, and seeing your post about her here reminded me of that ugly first impression. eew, vanessa beecroft.
She’s a horrible, psychotic bitch. And yes, extremely eating disordered and suffers (??) from a raging case of the narcissisms. I know people who had the misfortune of working with her and they have nothing but loathing. That New Yorker piece was just the tip of the crazy. . . .
as an adopted kid, i find any fetishization of orphaned kids/adopted kids/adopted kids of another color than the parents personally enraging. parents looking to adopt should be looking for an addition to their family, not their wardrobe or lifestyle.
blech!
but i’m going to see the film. it sounds good. like the film “mr. death,” about this horrible man who thought the documentary would show him as a hero (who found ‘evidence’ that the holocaust didn’t happen) but obviously ended up being a portrait of a deluded, unlovable jerk.
Just wait a couple of decades and we’ll all be laughing at how silly she was yet continue to appreciate her artwork just like any other artist and their fucking publicity stunts.
I’d call her a cunt, but she lacks warmth and depth.
WHOA! OF course the conversations above are over a year old but I only just watched the documentary of Vanessa Beecroft’s (The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins) insane, narcissistic venture into human exploitation being labeled as live human sculpture and art. What “Iron Chic” above says is spot on.
More than any other thing Beecroft created, the nude models standing for hours on end and the black models nude bodies on the floor being splattered with blood – laying there for hours while the artist herself, paint brush and bucket (symbolic of a weapon IMO) in hand does the ‘honors’…it was so violating and exploitive of these women. My feeling is that Vanessa must always be in control of her subjects – even those she paints or creates interactively …making sure they feel as uncomfortable and violated as they look. All the while the Champagne sipping truffle eating crowd observe and you could see those who were revolted by it, by her.
Disgusting! This mentally imbalanced so called artist is selfish to the point that even as her own husband is being candid with her (and us) she doesn’t care…it’s all about her. She very nearly says she doesn’t love him, scarcely needs him and mostly tolerates “American” convention for the sake of her so-called marriage or rather the fact that she NEEDS something from him; though what it is, we can’t really know but vaguely sense he’s some kind of helpless surrogate; there in a supportive role, there for sex, there for his fandom, there for the kids. It didn’t really matter what he thought or what he wanted. The poor guy.
You could tell he’s TRULY the one who cares about other people while she uses whomever and whatever muse provides her with the latest inspiration. This woman is typical of many elitists who feign themselves to be socially aware concerned individuals (and btw, she was raised in Europe, is Italian and English) while living in the lap of luxury with nannies and housekeepers to raise her kids. Her own children are not a number one priority and are peddled off as her self-important personal icon grows larger than life.