Shia LaBeouf collaborator addresses actor’s ‘#IAMSORRY’ rape allegation

One of Shia LaBeouf’s “#IAMSORRY” collaborators has spoken up after the publication of an interview in which the actor said he was raped by a woman during the course of the five-day art installation.

The comments from artist Luke Turner confirmed that an “incident” had occurred during the February effort that he, LaBeouf and Nastja Sade Ronkko presented after the actor admitted he’d plagiarized illustrator Daniel Clowes’ work for his short film “HowardCantour.com.”

“A couple of important clarifications about our #IAMSORRY project earlier this year,” Turner said Sunday in a series of tweets. “Nowhere did we state that people could do whatever they wanted to Shia during #IAMSORRY.

“As soon as we were aware of the incident starting to occur,” he said, “we put a stop to it and ensured that the woman left.”

LaBeouf’s rape allegation came to light after a writer prompted him to share experiences from “#IAMSORRY” that might have been “particularly moving or even unsettling.”

“one woman who came with her boyfriend / who was out side the door when this happened,” LaBeouf wrote as part of a lengthy email exchange with Aimee Cliff that ensued after he reached out to her in late September with an offer to “start a dialogue.”

The woman “whipped my legs for 10 minutes and then striped my clothing / and proceeded to rape me,” he wrote, formatting his comments like a poem. “then walked out with her lipstick smudged / to her awaiting boyfriend / who i image was quite hurt by it / all this happened in front of hundreds of people / it was really terrible that.”

A bullwhip had been among 10 items on a table at the exhibit; patrons could bring one item into a room where LaBeouf awaited. The actor, who had a brown bag over his head with the words “I am not famous anymore” written on it, could not speak with the visitors, who were allowed in one at a time.

The performance-art installation ran from Feb. 11-16 in L.A.’s Fairfax district.

“yea it was no good / not just for me but her man as well,” LaBeouf told Cliff. “on top of that my girl was in line to come see me / because it was valentines day / & i was living in the gallery sleeping in a sleeping bag / for the duration of the event / we were separated for 5 days / no communication / so it really hurt her as well / as i guess the news of it traveled through the line.

“she was only about 25 people back,” he continued. “when she came in she asked for an explination / and i couldn’t speak / so we both sat with this unexplained trauma / silently it was painful / the hardest part of the show.”

A Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman told The Times on Friday that the department had not been alerted to any complaints involving LaBeouf but noted that a rape victim’s name would not have been released.

In the Dazed interview, the actor did not say whether he had contacted police.

LaBeouf and Cliff, in addition to their electronic communication, conducted a face-to-face “interview” in the second half of October during which both parties wore GoPro cameras directed at one another and no words were spoken.

The email exchange was boiled down for publication in the winter issue of Dazed magazine and can be seen in full along with the video interview at LaBeouf’s website, the Campaign Book.

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