Before you read this (and yes, there is something to read this time) go watch Kanye West's Runaway. Yes, the 34 minute video, that one, watch it.
Ok, so now that we've established Kanye's incapability of creating anything but genius, I want to focus one what struck me most about Runaway: art director Vanessa Beecroft. I recognized her in this work nearly immediately, she's got an unmistakable eye to convey beauty and misery together. (Yes, she was a famous social action artist before Kanye).
She's known best for her postfeminism pieces (such as Show and Despair) and has been the center of many controversies for her allegedly sexist and racists pieces. (I would go into my personal views of her work (bottom line I find them brilliant on numerous levels) but I tend to get passionate about it and this would take a while) She constructs and deconstructs the ideas of beauty, femininity and race through the harsh exposure of reality. She's been quoted to say "I like the freedom to do actions that embarrass society" and bases most of her pieces on the concept that "beauty is always something unsolved, something you can never achieve in real life". So although I will praise Kanye for the rest of my days and continue to believe that he can do no wrong, I would like to make this post a small dedication to the art direction of the insanely talented imagination of Vanessa Beecroft, who inspired 4 papers and 6 heated discussions throughout my college career.
