Vanessa Beecroft’s work is largely performance-based, often featuring female models as living art objects that exist somewhere between figure and object, static and dynamic. Much of Beecroft’s work is informed by her personal struggle with an eating disorder and she consistently explores issues of body image and femininity in contemporary culture. Beecroft’s highly choreographed performance works examine what constitutes the perfect body, as well as the role of context in determining the intricate relationship between viewer and viewed. In her 2011 performance VB67, for example, nude female models were assembled among marble and plaster sculptures, subverting the traditional art viewing experience while emphasizing both the affinities and the stark differences between the living women and the sculptures.
