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ilka Leukefeld

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The Green Beast

Venus

The Green Beast
"Be massaged by a beast that would do David Attenborough proud. Please donate generously," was scribbled on a tin, in the style of a street beggar's message.

The artist, dressed in a hunter's fleece and face mask, silently offers gentle massages in exchange for a donation. How generously does the art audience reward the hard-working artist in an environment where art is often taken for granted and expected to be free of charge?

The Green Beast was first performed in March 2009 at the Nunnery in Bow, London. The Green Beast has since appeared at exhibitions at the Hospital Club, London WC2, in 2010; as part of Best of UK School 2009 at Salon Contemporary, London W2, in 2010; and in the exhibition We're only in it for the money at the Princess Alice, London E1, in 2013.

Changer of hearts (after The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, 1486)
Live performance on 28 March 2014 (2 hours), in the Renaissance Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, as part of the POST Canalology exhibiton; first performed to camera in November 2013. Exhibition page.

The artist stands on a stone bench. She wears a sandwich board but is otherwise naked. The text on the front and back reads: 'marine debris' and 'shore debris', referring to the environmental pollution of the seas, such as the vast floating carpets of plastic detritus.

Leukefeld takes on the persona of the goddess Venus in Botticelli's painting, but recasts her as a female power figure and contemporary eco-activist protesting about water-related environmental issues. In doing so, she references the surrounding classically-inspired sculptures.

Frack-free artist
Performance to camera, December 2013.

Rubbish, l'esprit de society
Performance to camera at Kingsway College, London. Photoshop collage from advertisement in found magazine, 1994.

Website: Pinktree

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