Live breast milking performance piece gets two artists kicked out of Art Basel (VIDEO)

Dec 7 2022, 5:45 pm

Art Basel is known for a lot of things: unusual artwork and controversial pieces that definitely get people talking. But perhaps few were as controversial as the unexpected performance during Art Basel in Miami, which took place from December 1 to 3.

According to TMZ, artists OONA and Lori Baldwin performed “Milking the Artist” much to the crowd’s surprise. The performance reportedly took place during the weekend of the art festival.

Artists Lori Baldwin and OONA/@iamloribaldwin/@made.by.oona/Instagram

The incident, which was caught on video, started with the artists “shouting about fetishizing the female breast.” OONA then began squeezing what appears to be milk from prosthetic breasts, with Baldwin trying to catch the liquid in a glass.

Watch the video below:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Lori Baldwin (@iamloribaldwin)

“Is this not art?” shouts OONA.

To add to the performance, Baldwin starts auctioning off the milk, even reaching a bid of CAD$272,756 (US$200,000). But it’s not clear if they managed to close the bid.

Much to the large crowd’s disappointment, the pair were then escorted from the venue with a security guard saying, “You guys need to leave.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by OONA (@made.by.oona)

On their website, OONA states, “At most art fairs, bare boobs only exist in paintings — framed like dead objects. Here, the breasts are audacious because they are attached to a living consenting body.”

When asked by TMZ if the breasts were prosthetics, OONA replied, “They are as real as you want them to be.”

In a statement, Baldwin points out the art world’s “insidious underbelly” which determines which artists to milk and what their milk is worth.

“In ‘Milking the Artist,’ we play with context and its relationship to value,” stated the artist. “We are raising the floor price of feminist performance art.”

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