Vanessa Beecroft (born April 25, 1969) is an Italian-born American contemporary performance artist; she also works with photography, video art, sculpture, and painting.

[4] Vanessa Beecroft was born April 25, 1969, in Genoa, Italy[3] and raised in Santa Margherita Ligure and Malcesine near Lake Garda.

[4][5] Both of her parents were teachers; she was born to an Italian mother, Maria Luisa and a British father, Andrew Beecroft.

[5] Her mother raised Beecroft alone in a village in Italy in a strict vegan household with no cars, no television, and no phone.

[3][9][10] The "Book of Food" documented Beecroft's bulimic eating habits[11] and was referenced again in her later work, but it was separate from the performances.

[12] She moved to the United States in 1996, at the invitation of art dealer Jeffrey Deitch, settling in New York City.

[12] Models were uniformed, nude, or barely clothed and were required to stand for hours, often in tall high heels without movement or eye contact.

[34][35] They began working together with a listening party at Ace Gallery, Los Angeles for West's music albums 808s and Heartbreaks.

[36] In February 2015, West embarked on a fashion design career with Yeezy Season 1, under the Adidas label and Beecroft directed the performance presentation.

[42] The film presents Beecroft as a "hypocritically self-aware, colossally colonial pomo narcissist" and chronicles her "damaging quotes and appalling behavior" as she attempts to adopt the orphans for use in an art exhibit.