Nude Angelina Jolie Statue to Promote Breastfeeding

For World Breastfeeding Week, Phantom-Financial, a niche private equity company, announces the unveiling of a life-size park bench sculpture of Angelina Jolie nude with her twin babies by New York artist Daniel Edwards.

While breastfeeding is being promoted through various means, recently Facebook triggered a controversy when a U.S. mother Kelli Roman received a warning notice from Facebook that she was misusing some features on the Facebook site. And then Facebook removed her pictures from the site, citing a policy clause under which it won’t allow “obscene” material. (Read: Why Facebook Dislikes Breastfeeding Pictures?)

“Landmark for Breastfeeding,” inspired by last year’s cover of W magazine featuring Angelina Jolie suckling her baby, depicts a seated nude Jolie double-breastfeeding twins. The tranquil bronze statue demonstrates the “football-hold,” an accepted technique for breastfeeding two babies simultaneously.

In recognition of the global effort to encourage breastfeeding, one twin is depicted as being of African descent. Future castings of the statue will represent other world cultures through variations of the babies’ patina coloring.

“We believe the statue sends a beautiful message by promoting the acceptance of public breastfeeding. Mothers should be encouraged to nurture their babies anywhere,” said Sandy Wilson of Phantom-Financial.

“Hopefully, my sculpture inspires an increase of wetnurses to assist women who have concerns about mastitis, or passing HIV to their infant,” said artist Daniel Edwards in his Connecticut studio where the Jolie statue currently resides.

The Jolie monument will be unveiled September 11th at MAINSITE Contemporary Art in Norman.

A cast of the sculpture is expected to be auctioned by Sotheby’s October 7th for The New York Academy of Art’s annual Take Home A Nude art auction, after being displayed at Holster Projects in London’s West End.

“Landmark for Breastfeeding,” a short film documenting the project by filmmaker Dave Smith, produced by Vacant Era Films has been posted on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLcdRL-GKoA

Edwards’s past works of celebrity motherhood include “Monument to Pro-Life,” featuring Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug, and “Octomom: String of Babies.”

Photo: “Landmark for Breastfeeding” by Daniel Edwards