Kaldor Public Art Project 12: Vanessa Beecroft 1999

'VB40'

2, 4 & 5 August 1999

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Vanessa Beecroft’s use of live models has developed into a prolific body of more than 60 different performances presented in museums, galleries and public spaces around the world. For Project 12 in Sydney, Vanessa Beecroft’s 'VB40', 1999, was the 40th in her series of works, most using nude and semi-nude women, preened and presented in formation. At the Museum of Contemporary Art, 20 models stood for a period of two-and-a-half hours for each performance; positioned by Beecroft and following rules of deportment, they conformed to an overall configuration. Drawing from the iconography of fashion, film and painting, they became a collective portrait of idealised femininity and desire within a consumer culture.