BRITNEY ON BEARSKIN

Before I saw the pictures, and before I read the artist's statement, I figured this must be a hoax. A "pro-life" sculpture depicting Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug? You're fucking with me, right? No, I suppose this is serious—at least for artist Daniel Edwards it is.

While Britney Spears has become a punchline for late night television hosts' monologues, a steady paycheck for paparazzi (snapping photos of the pop star eating Ding Dongs, talking on her cell phone, and smoking fistfuls of cigarettes while driving), and an undying fixture in American pop culture, I'm not sure that justifies Edwards' decision to cast her in clay and proclaim her likeness be the silent spokeswoman for the pro-life movement. However, art is intended to encourage the expression of raw emotions and ideas, with each artist looking at life through a different, um, point-of-view, right? Also, as a personal aside, the look of this sculpture greatly echoes the work of art visionary Jeff Koons. But I'll leave that observation to the real art critics.

Titled “Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston,” Edwards' sculpture will be unveiled during an opening reception at Capla Kesting Fine Art in Brooklyn, New York on Friday April 7th. Described as an "idealized depiction of Britney in delivery," the sculpture shows the: "Natural aspects of Spears’ pregnancy, like lactiferous breasts and protruding naval, [complimenting] a posterior view that depicts widened hips for birthing and reveals the crowning of baby Sean’s head."

Yeesh, Edwards' even took the time to include a detail like "crowning" in the sculpture? This guy is intense (mainly with regards to details that will haunt viewers). Now, if he would have sculpted the face of Kevin Federline peeking out from Spears' tattered birth canal (as an homage to K-Fed's dependency on his pop star ladyfriend) and added a Big Gulp and pack of Parliaments clutched respectively in each of Spears' hands, I'd gladly endorse this pro-life pop culture clusterfuck.

Resources
Capla Kesting Fine Art
Press release about the sculpture