Elizabeth Stephens

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Elizabeth M. Stephens
Born (1960-11-18) November 18, 1960 (age 63)
Montgomery, West Virginia
Other names Beth
Education B.F.A., Tufts University (1986)
M.F.A., Rutgers University (1992)
Occupation Atist, sculptor, film maker, photographer, art professor, performer, professor, former Chair of the Art Department at UC Santa Cruz
Employer UC Santa Cruz
Notable work SexEcology, Love Art Laboratory
Title Professor
Spouse(s) Annie Sprinkle (2007 - present)

Elizabeth M. "Beth" Stephens (born November 18, 1960) is an American artist, sculptor, film maker, photographer, professor and former Chair of the Art Department at UC Santa Cruz. Stephens, who describes herself as "ecosexual", collaborates with her partner since 2002, ecosexual artist, radical sex educator, and performer Annie Sprinkle.[1]

Life and career

Stephens was born in Montgomery, West Virginia on November 18, 1960. Her family co-owned Marathon Coal-bit company. She grew up in Appalachia, moving to Boston, New Jersey, and later to San Francisco.[2]

Stephens studied Fine Arts at Tufts University, The Museum School, and Rutgers University. She worked with Martha Rosler and Geoffrey Hendricks[3] in her graduate education. She has been a professor at UCSC since 1993, and chaired the department from 2006 until 2009.[4]

In December 2004, Stephens committed to doing seven years of art projects about love with her wife and art collaborator, Annie Sprinkle. They call this their Love Art Laboratory. Part of their project was to do an experimental art wedding each year, and each year had a different theme and color. The seven-year structure was adapted to their project by invitation of artist Linda M. Montano.[5] Sprinkle and Stephens have done seventeen art weddings, fourteen with ecosexual themes. Critics relate the project to contemporary political debates including marriage equality,[6] ecofeminism, and the environmental movement.[2][7][8] Critics also note that Stephens' work explores and challenges the validity of the boundary between what is "art," and what is "pornography."[9]

Recently, Stephens has produced and directed Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story, a film addressing Mountaintop removal mining near her birthplace and its effects on the environment and nearby communities.[10]

Her work has been shown internationally, including at Museum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf), El Ojo Atomico Antimuseo de Arte Contemporáneo [11] (Spain), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Bibliography

Director

  • 2013 Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story
  • 2006 Exposed; Experiments in Love, Sex, Death and Art
  • 2006 Orange Wedding Two
  • 2006 Red Wedding One
  • 2005 Kiss
  • 2004 Lüba; The Mother Teresa of Art
  • 1992 Do You Mind?
  • 1989 Interviews with Oaxacan Women
  • 1989 Women Eating

Articles

  • 2010 Post Porn Politics; Queer_Feminist Perspective on the Politics of Porn Performance and Sex_Work as Culture Production, Post Porn Brunch, Elizabeth M. Stephens, Annie M. Sprinkle and Cosey Fanni Tutti, ed. Tim Stüttgen, B_Books, Berlin, Germany pages 88–115
  • 2008 Live through This; On Creativity and Self Destruction, Double Trouble in the Love Art Lab: Our Breast Cancer Experiments. ed. Sabrina Chapadjiev, Seven Stories Press, New York, pp 105–117
  • 2004 Interview of Annie Sprinkle for Women and Performance — 20th Anniversary Issue, New York University Press
  • 1998 Looking Class Heroes: Dykes on Bikes Cruising Calendar Girls The Passionate Camera: Photography and Bodies of Desire

Film/Video

  • 2013 Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story
  • 2011 Purple Wedding to the Moon, White Wedding to the Snow
  • 2010 Purple Wedding to the Appalachian Mountains
  • 2009 Blue Wedding to the Sky/Sea Video
  • 2008 Green Wedding Four to the Earth
  • 2007 Big Nudes Descending a Staircase
  • 2007 Etant Donnees
  • 2007 Yellow Wedding Three
  • 2006 Exposed; Experiments in Love, Sex, Death and Art
  • 2006 Orange Wedding Two
  • 2006 Red Wedding One
  • 2005 Kiss
  • 2004 Lüba; The Mother Teresa of Art
  • 1992 Do You Mind?
  • 1989 Interviews with Oaxacan Women
  • 1989 Women Eating

Awards

  • 1987 Boit Award
  • 2014 Rydell Fellowship

References

  1. ↑ Toronto Life: Double Exposure
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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