Culture

Madonna defends 3D vagina NFT art amid pearl-clutching backlash: ‘I’m giving birth to art’

Madonna explains 3D vagina art as prudes clutch pearls

Madonna explains 3D vagina art as prudes clutch pearls (Kevin Mazur/MTV VMAs 2021/Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS)

Madonna has hit back at critics of an NFT artwork she has released featuring a 3D model of her vagina giving birth to a flowering tree, butterflies and robotic centipede.

The three-video artwork, which is being auctioned off for three charities, has raised eyebrows for featuring the pop icon completely nude rendered in 3D, giving birth to flaura and fauna.

In an interview with Mike Winkelmann (otherwise known as Beeple), who she collaborated with to create the art, Madonna, 63, said that she is simply “doing what women have been doing since the beginning of time, which is giving birth”.

“But on a more existential level, I’m giving birth to art and creativity and we would be lost without both,” she added.

“I think it’s really important that a lot of thought and conversation went into creating these videos.”

The NFT (non-fungible tokens) artwork can be bid on using digital currency Ethereum; an NFT is a unique digital token which proves that a person owns an “original” artwork.

The art itself has proved divisive, with some calling it “insane”, and one New York Post writer describing it as a “filthy attention grab”.

Some, however, loved the originality of the work, with one Twitter user saying: “I’m here for Madonna creating and sharing artistic depictions of her giving birth in cold, sterile and destructive masculine world. 

“People, it’s a vagina, not Putin. Say what you want, not many artists would put themselves out there.”

This is not the first time Madonna has attracted criticism for “risqué” art, with the Vatican itself encouraging people to boycott her erotic book Sex in 1992, calling the work “morally intolerable”.

Madonna added in a statement: “I wanted to investigate the concept of creation, not only the way a child enters the world through a woman’s vagina but also the way an artist gives birth to creativity.”

Proceeds from Madonna’s art will benefit three charities: the Voices of Children Foundation, which supports those affected by the war in Ukraine, the City of Joy Foundation, which aids survivors of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Black Mama’s Bail Out, a non-profit that provides bail funds for imprisoned caregivers.

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