Absolutely clueless! I have no other words for the outrageous stunt pulled by Francesca, 19 yr old daughter of Clint Eastwood! Setting a hundred thousand dollar designer bag on fire and photographing it is not art!
Sure she's young and at 19 you still do stupid things, but please get a clue. The NY Post reported that she was surprised at the backlash from the public, stating that people just don't understand art.
Together with her shock-photographer boyfriend, Tyler Shields she set a red Birkin croco bag on fire. He is well known for his "shock-art" photography like covering a nude model in dollar bills or blood. Good publicity for him, maybe, but art? No way.
A statement, I suppose that's what the pair had in mind, but hello, we are living in the age of class war fare in a country where the number of homeless has reached staggering proportions. No wonder the rich have to live in gated communities with private security for their property and their person, because it truly has become a life apart.
Francesca's behaviour is not really out of line in her high income world or probably even her circle of friends. The society she moves in shields and protects her from what millions of Americans face ever day - economic survival.Â
I think I am so outraged over this story, because it drives home the ever widening gap between the haves and the have nots in America. Why didn't she think of using a knock-off designer bag - gasp - and set it on fire instead.
Some of the commenters on line defended her actions by saying that it is her money and she is entitled to treat her property in any way she wishes. True, but I am reminded of a good friend's statement, "My girls know they are privileged and we teach them not to flaunt their wealth." Good advice in today's world, do it at your private club if you must, they will understand about spoiled brats and might even embrace your view of what is art.
In my world it's called ueber-clueless. I would never consider her actions worthy of the death threats she received. Insensitive, sure, stupid and clueless, well ya.
I will say, "Francesca, educate yourself, look around you, get smarter about how you spend your hundred thou. Stop burning designer bags and get a real, productive life, preferably without that useless, opportunistic boyfriend of yours."
Francesca, your statement is lost on us, the masses. In fact there are those who take offense, it's a slap in the face for a man or woman who just lost their job of twenty years, akin to Marie Antoinette's words, "Let them eat cake." She was beheaded in the French Revolution, remember:)
I get that you are a model and that he is into so called "modern art" doing a photo series called "Love Kills" - hey didn't he steal that term from someone else? and Fashion Kills" - how original! Destroying designer items, going to extremes to evoke a strong reaction. Yawn!
May I suggest, that Tyler perhaps consider an original approach, you know - one uniquely his, one more in tune with the world we live in today.
I also understand you were looking for publicity for your brand new TV show starting on E tonight. Fashionmagazine.com called you out for changing the fame-whoring game and I'd say you lost that first round, the public is not amused or intrigued, they are outraged!Â
   Everyone sees their world from a different point of view, based on their own circumstances, knowledge and insights.Â
Francesca, smarten up, girl!Â
While I was writing this opinion piece .....Â
This story just got better and better:
Click here -Â Newsflash: In the wake of the public outcry Tyler Shields, the photographer offers to donate $100,000 to a needy family - if he can sell the photographs!
Interview on the Huffington Post. Unbelievable, is all I have to say.
Did I mention he is the same photographer who stirred up controversy over photographs he took of Glee actress Ms. Morris, which a lot of people including myself perceived as glamorizing domestic violence. Shame on him.
Well, I said what's on my mind, so what do you think?
This story is all over the net, but just to name one source which I loosely quoted in one paragraph www.nypost.com
To see the burning bag photos go to the photographers website www.tylershields.comÂ
May 30, 2012 © Rose Hill All Rights Reserved Â
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Comments: 40
I saw the story and it was still on my mind this morning, it bugged me so much I had to write about it.
This whole "stunt" makes me sick!
and geez, think of all the medical bills I could pay with that kind of money.
When the people in this country stop rewarding bad conduct I will be surprised at actions like this, but not before. I would not visit the tylersheild site for fear of his counting my view as a hit.
I'm sure he's laughing all the way to the bank.
$100 - $500 = An excellent bag made of excellent material and excellent workmanship With this bag I can crap in it one day and make soup in it the next (with the proper disinfection techniques applied.)
$1000 - $5000 = It is a piece of art. I've bought it because I love the designer/artist and it will stand in a place of pride in my home.
$10,000 - $50,000 = This will be the bag I will spend my last minutes of life in. Whether it is burial, lit on fire or set adrift in the ocean, this bag will service all of my funereal needs (remembering of course that the first three letters in funeral are `fun'.) If I have sold my home to buy my bag, then it will also service as my house.
$100,000 or more = All the amenities of the previous bags, plus you are telling everyone around you that only you may possess "This bag." All others are worthless and weak, possession of "this bag", "This Bag of the Gods" is beyond any others feeble means. Gaze upon it and know with absolute certainty that your life is meaningless. Your only hope is to give yourself completely to those in "The Great Hall of Bags", where your flesh, sinew and bones will be used in the great furnaces and tanneries to extract the souls of those who truly are worthy of becoming bag material.
Flaming/burning $100,000 or greater bag. You're a bleeding idiot. The bag gods have cursed you for your insolence. You've burnt your bag and can't get into it or anything that is inside it. All previous amenities that you enjoyed while possessing even the $100 bag are gone. Your fame all though rampantly high is fleeting, soon your only choice will be to take up your burning bag of leather and beat them with it. The resulting injuries to them will grant you a few more minutes of fame, before you are taken to a place where everyone holds their possessions in their hands. You offer yourself shamelessly to the furnaces of "The Great Hall of Bags", but they keep pushing you towards the "Eternal pit of plastic grocery bags", where you can only stay for a moment because the exhaust from the polymer extrusion plant gives you massive headaches. Occasionally you'll find a discarded "Hello Kitty" purse, but your happiness only lasts as long as the next thunderstorm.
Your shoveling $100,000 or greater purses into a furnace as fast as they make them.
You are by far the coolest human on the planet. You're not some simp trying to make a statement with a single obnoxious purse, you're actually doing something about them. You're hunted by the authorities in the daytime, while fashion designers and models seek you out, so that they can be seen with you. You make or break a purse fashions and your outlawed ways are romanticised throughout the media. In the coming fall you are the theme of lunch boxes, iphone cases and 20th Century Fox wants to tell your story in 3 D.
He'll go down in history as a misunderstood artist.
I think the price of the designer doesn't really matter if you are truly wealthy. It's just part of your expensive lifestyle, which is fine if you can afford it.
However what this so called shock-photographer is doing to get attention does get under my skin, especially since he is laughing all the way to the bank.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gPqrQcmKSY" target="_blank">piano burning
Which is where I bet he got his inspiration...
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I hate trashing anything, even if it IS something broken or used up,s o the wastefulness of doing something like burning that bag is just a crime to me.
Was that a real croc in its before life?
If so, that was the first wrong doing - purchasing it.
Good post, Rose.