Vanessa Beecroft and Maya Rudolph Meet for the First Time and Clunk Coconuts
Find out what the controversial performance artist has to say about working with Kanye.
For T Magazine‘s latest installment in its “Perfect Strangers” series, a column that brings together two individuals for the very first time, performance artist Vanessa Beecroft meets SNL alumni Maya Rudolph. Known for her provocative “living paintings” that often involve nude women, she has essentially become a household name among streetwear enthusiasts for her notable collaborations with Kanye West on his Yeezy presentations. In between clunking coconuts and discussing what in the world Snapchat actually is, Beecroft and hilarious actress Maya Rudolph are an infectiously charming duo. You can read an excerpt from the conversation below and can head over to T Magazine to see the full feature.
Beecroft: I wish larger women would be appreciated here like they are in Brazil, where it’s like, “Hey, I’m bigger and that’s cool.” But here it’s all about emphasizing the sexual parts: the butt, the breasts, the lips. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right! My ex-husband left me, and on the same day one year later I met Kanye. That same day I also met my new husband, Federico.
Rudolph: That’s wild.
Beecroft: It was my friend Miltos’s birthday, an ex-boyfriend from Greece who’s kind of a mentor to me. I kept whining to Miltos about Greg, Greg, Greg — that’s my ex-husband’s name — and Miltos said, “Look, he is just a Greg. You are the Vanessa. You keep going.” And I did. And then I met Kanye and Federico.
Rudolph: So Kanye found you, obviously.
Beecroft: He contacted my studio. I didn’t know who he was — I’ve never had a TV — so I didn’t pay attention to the request until my assistant said, “You have to go. If you don’t, I’m going to go for you.” So I went, and right away he felt like a brother. I’ll never say anything bad about him because he’s always been incredibly respectful — maybe not to the crew when he’s working, but to me.
Rudolph: I’m sure that you also are an extension of him. He is an artist, of course, and he’s so visual, but you can express the things that he needs to get out of him that he can’t carry out.
Beecroft: He’s always saying that what he does is bad, imperfect. Of course publicly he says it’s great, but I see that he is never satisfied. He wants to do the next. He’s already in the future.
