It's graduation show season, and Central Saint Martins have some very special guests. Shia LaBeouf, Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner's latest project is #INTRODUCTIONS, a set of 36 half-minute long films performed by LaBeouf against a green screen. It's for the graduating class of the Fine Art BA – each film will introduce their end-of-year work.
Back in March, the artists requested that the students send a piece of text to introduce each of their works, to be presented during a live stream broadcast during the degree show opening. They stated that this text could be "as poetic, abstract or literal as you like – with the emphasis on expressing the feeling and tone of the work being introduced."
The students were then tasked with filling the green screen with whatever background they saw fit, completing the to and fro of the collaboration. The live stream of video, performance, 2D and sculpture works will be broadcast this afternoon, with the introductions, but, ahead of the event, we're showing the raw #INTRODUCTIONS films in all their glory.
One student requested he give a motivational talk, another that he breathe in, then out, then in, then out. Alexis Marie Sera, whose #INTRODUCTION starts at 16:36, asked for a rendition of a character struggling to accept their death, while Alice Woods and Jasmin Newman asked LaBeouf to read aloud his favourite work of fiction – which happens to be Bukowski's The Laughing Heart – by way of introduction to their work. Scrobblers should check out Joshua Parker's ultra-affirmation at 08:58, or Alice Jacobs’ yogic OM at 28:12.
You can read the complete PDFs of requests above, and we'll be posting the live stream of the show below when it starts at 6pm. And if you'd like to make your own work with the raw #INTRODUCTIONS films, feel free: the file will be released as a creative commons video (just head to Vimeo to download the full file).
Watch the live stream of the CSM degree show – including LaBeouf, Rönkkö and Turner's BA Fine Art collaboration – below:
