Famous actors and musicians go out of their comort zones for the sake of art. Watch as these celebrities take art to the limit as only they can.
James Franco
On the season six premiere of the Sundance Channel show Iconcolasts, which pairs together two artists and films the creative results, James Franco was paired with Marina Abramovic and the result was something unusual, expensive and shiny. James Franco sat patiently and quietly as Abramovic stuck sheets of gold leaf onto his skin in order to transform him into a living sculpture of gold. What does it mean? Not much according to Abramovic. "Sometimes with art it's important just to look," she said of the golden Franco.
Jay Z
Before Gaga did her piece with Marina Abramovic, Jay Z was taking cues from the famed performance artist. Case in point, his epic six hour rap marathon in July at New York's Museum of Modern Art. For hours on end, Hova recited his song "Picasso Baby" to a revolving cast placed in his performance area including random audience members, celebrities and even Diania Widmaier Picasso, the granddaughter of Picasso. Several people were equipped with GoPro cameras to film the performance, to be a part of a music video for Jay Z's song.
Tilda Swinton
Androgynous Oscar-nominated actress Tilda Swinton took part in a performance art installation, also at the MOMA in New York, called 'The Maybe.' In the installation, the British thespian would sleep in a glass box in the museum with nothing but pillows and a water jug. Museum visitors watched as she slept. The 'maybe' portion of the piece was due to the fact that there would never been any advanced notice on whether or not Swinton would be sleeping in her glass box on any given day. Even the museum wasn't given advanced notice for when she would show up, and visitor queries about whether Swinton would be there were met with "maybe."
Milla Jovovich
Proving that she has acting chops as well as beauty, Milla Jovovich decided to play the part of a character while being trapped in a Plexiglas cube for six hours with only her electronics for company in this performance piece designed by model and artist Tara Subkoff. The cube was placed outside for passersby to see as part of the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy. Jovavich ordered dozens of pieces of artwork to her clear cube until she could hardly move. In an interview with V magazine, Subkoff said the piece was meant to be a comment on advertising, commercialism and how technology affects our relationships.
Willem Dafoe
Actor Willem Dafoe is yet another celebrity to work with Marina Abramovic. In 2011, he began starring in director Robert Wilson’s The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic, a play based on the artist’s life and career. When describing his role in the production, Dafoe said “I’m actually a combination of things. I’m a structural element, I’m the front-of-the-curtain man, I give information, I embody the principal male characters of (Marina’s) life.”
John Lennon /Yoko Ono
John Lennon and Yoko Ono frequently used performance art to spread their message of peace in the 1960s. One of their performance concepts, bagism, involved them putting their entire bodies in a bag and sitting in that position for an extended period of time. The idea behind bagism was that people would only be judged for their message and not for their physical appearance. Lennon believed in the idea so much that he mentioned it in three of the songs he wrote—“The Ballad of John and Yoko,” “Come Together,” and “Give Peace a Chance.”
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James Franco
On the season six premiere of the Sundance Channel show Iconcolasts, which pairs together two artists and films the creative results, James Franco was paired with Marina Abramovic and the result was something unusual, expensive and shiny. James Franco sat patiently and quietly as Abramovic stuck sheets of gold leaf onto his skin in order to transform him into a living sculpture of gold. What does it mean? Not much according to Abramovic. "Sometimes with art it's important just to look," she said of the golden Franco.
Jay Z
Before Gaga did her piece with Marina Abramovic, Jay Z was taking cues from the famed performance artist. Case in point, his epic six hour rap marathon in July at New York's Museum of Modern Art. For hours on end, Hova recited his song "Picasso Baby" to a revolving cast placed in his performance area including random audience members, celebrities and even Diania Widmaier Picasso, the granddaughter of Picasso. Several people were equipped with GoPro cameras to film the performance, to be a part of a music video for Jay Z's song.
Tilda Swinton
Androgynous Oscar-nominated actress Tilda Swinton took part in a performance art installation, also at the MOMA in New York, called 'The Maybe.' In the installation, the British thespian would sleep in a glass box in the museum with nothing but pillows and a water jug. Museum visitors watched as she slept. The 'maybe' portion of the piece was due to the fact that there would never been any advanced notice on whether or not Swinton would be sleeping in her glass box on any given day. Even the museum wasn't given advanced notice for when she would show up, and visitor queries about whether Swinton would be there were met with "maybe."
Milla Jovovich
Proving that she has acting chops as well as beauty, Milla Jovovich decided to play the part of a character while being trapped in a Plexiglas cube for six hours with only her electronics for company in this performance piece designed by model and artist Tara Subkoff. The cube was placed outside for passersby to see as part of the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy. Jovavich ordered dozens of pieces of artwork to her clear cube until she could hardly move. In an interview with V magazine, Subkoff said the piece was meant to be a comment on advertising, commercialism and how technology affects our relationships.
Willem Dafoe
Actor Willem Dafoe is yet another celebrity to work with Marina Abramovic. In 2011, he began starring in director Robert Wilson’s The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic, a play based on the artist’s life and career. When describing his role in the production, Dafoe said “I’m actually a combination of things. I’m a structural element, I’m the front-of-the-curtain man, I give information, I embody the principal male characters of (Marina’s) life.”
John Lennon /Yoko Ono
John Lennon and Yoko Ono frequently used performance art to spread their message of peace in the 1960s. One of their performance concepts, bagism, involved them putting their entire bodies in a bag and sitting in that position for an extended period of time. The idea behind bagism was that people would only be judged for their message and not for their physical appearance. Lennon believed in the idea so much that he mentioned it in three of the songs he wrote—“The Ballad of John and Yoko,” “Come Together,” and “Give Peace a Chance.”
more @ source