Shia LaBeouf rambles and rants for art, inspiring memes in the process

By Rob Dean | June 1, 2015 | 8:08pm

Aux Features Film

In a bid for James Franco’s title of King of the Curious Art Pieces, Shia LaBeouf took part in a video in which he recites various statements submitted by BA of Fine Arts students of Central Saint Martins. Working with his usual collaborators Rönkkö / Turner, the video is titled “#Introductions” and is a 31-minute-long piece split into 36 segments ranging from whimsical to irate, deeply poetic, and oddly personal. It’s unclear what the mandate was for the submissions, which are all over the emotional spectrum. But LaBeouf commits himself to monologuing each to the best of his ability, with only a minimal amount of props and a bare green screen stage.

Of course, since they’re delivered in front of a green screen, these pieces are easily editable and therefore ripe for reappropriation by the internet, which has already put Shia into 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Empire Strikes Back. (The part everyone appears to love the most is the pumped-up motivational speech that begins at 8:58.) The entire video is below, with all of its emotional permutations and varieties of Shia LaBeoufness.