VB66 Perfomance/sculpture
Mercato Ittico, Naples, Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi, Monday February 15th 2010
Installation view

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For her last performance at Mercato Ittico (fish market) in Napoli (Italy), VANESSA BEECROFT has been influenced by the sculptures, the reference to the destiny of Pompeii, the colour black (so close to the shadow), the fragments of the bodies and the omnipresent presence of the volcano.

The work consists of a group of sculptures taken from casts of real people and from fragments of the casts and of a vast group of girls with black make-up. The girls hide in the dark of the space and are confused with the sculptures. The fragments recall the carbonised bodies of Pompeii, the sculptural remains of the past, but also the visualisation of the unease of the female body, in which the perception of just one part of the body involves less significance and pain than the entire body.

Each BEECROFT performance is rooted in the artist’s complex inner world, yet disquietingly contemporary, exploring female identity, nature and paradoxes of life. These universal themes can be profoundly moving -and sometimes disturbing. She doesn’t title her work: “I’ve realized the titles must be used only if they’re necessary and it takes a talent – which I don’t have – for that. For this reason I’ve replaced them with the numbering of my database, easier to remember.”

Born in Genoa Italy, VANESSA BEECROFT now lives in Los Angeles.