Watch Shia LaBeouf Collaborate with Grad Students to Make Video Art

At 16:36, LaBeouf plays a character struggling to accept that he's dying.

Shia LaBeouf in full flow.
Photo: Central St. Martins .

Just imagine. You are about to graduate from art school, you’re broke, exhausted and there is a world capital city of artists ready and waiting to compete with you. What more could you ask for than a world-famous cheerleader?

Enter Hollywood concept actor Shia LaBeouf (see Shia LaBeouf Participates In A Performance Mocking Shia LaBeouf). LaBeouf worked with 36 students from the B.A. graduating fine art class at London art college Central St. Martins to create 30-second video introductions for their end-of-year work—their thesis show, “Show One,” opened last night.

For this project, called #INTRODUCTIONS, students were asked to contribute a brief introduction of their work, and a video to accompany it. In the resulting work—you can watch the entire half-hour video above—watch LaBeouf transform himself while delivering their introductions in front of a green screen (the screen will later be filled with videos of the students).

If you would like some pointers, you can see Alexis Marie Sera’s section at 16:36 which shows a character struggling to accept dying; JJ Tipton asked the actor to breathe deeply at 01:25 plus; Alice Woods and Jasmin Newman asked him to read a section from his favorite book, which is (unsurprisingly?) The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski.

#INTRODUCTIONS is just the latest project from Shia LaBeouf, Nastja Säde Rönkkö, and Luke Turner, follows in the footsteps of #METAMARATHON, #IAMSORRY and #FOLLOWMYHEART. LaBeouf’s earlier forays into the art world have strayed from the sublime to the ridiculous to the downright dangerous (see Shia LaBeouf Completes Conceptual Art Marathon and Shia LaBeouf Sexually Assaulted During Performance At Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles) but what was initially viewed as trite Hollywood antics is now being gradually accepted.

Shia LeBeouf is not the only Hollywood actor to get involved in higher education this week. Robert de Niro gave a very unique speech to students at Tisch on Monday (see Robert De Niro Tells NYU Arts Students They’re Screwed).

The full version of #INTRODUCTIONS will be uploaded onto the web, under creative commons, later today.

Show One, is on view at Central St. Martins, University of the Arts London, The Granary, 1 Granary Square,  N1C 4AA from May 27-31.


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