Clarissa Sligh, “Wrongly Bodied: Documenting Transition from Female to Male” Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 4:30-6:00 p.m. in Art/Sociology Building, Room 2203, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
Clarissa Sligh’s Wrongly Bodied project recounts the stories of Jake, a contemporary white male, as he transitions from female to male, and Ellen Craft, a 19th century black woman, as she passes for white and male in order to escape slavery. Through visually and textually narrating these stories as well as interrogating her own responses to them, Sligh explores the transgressive act of changing one's identity and crossing boundaries of gender, race and class in a "free and open" society. She translates intimate internal experiences into evocative words and images.
Clarissa Sligh is an artist photographer whose work is based on personal and community stories made as photographs, artist’s books, installations and mixed media. She has received many awards including an NEA Fellowship, Anonymous Was a Woman, and the International Center for Photography Infinity Award. Her work is in numerous collections including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., the International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, NY, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Sponsored by African American Political Culture Workshop, Department of History; African American Studies Department; Women’s Studies Department; Visual Literacy Toolbox
Free and open to the public. For more information, contact: Elsa Barkley Brown, Department of Women’s Studies at [email protected] or 301-405-7710.
Clarissa Sligh’s Wrongly Bodied project recounts the stories of Jake, a contemporary white male, as he transitions from female to male, and Ellen Craft, a 19th century black woman, as she passes for white and male in order to escape slavery. Through visually and textually narrating these stories as well as interrogating her own responses to them, Sligh explores the transgressive act of changing one's identity and crossing boundaries of gender, race and class in a "free and open" society. She translates intimate internal experiences into evocative words and images.
Clarissa Sligh is an artist photographer whose work is based on personal and community stories made as photographs, artist’s books, installations and mixed media. She has received many awards including an NEA Fellowship, Anonymous Was a Woman, and the International Center for Photography Infinity Award. Her work is in numerous collections including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., the International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, NY, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Sponsored by African American Political Culture Workshop, Department of History; African American Studies Department; Women’s Studies Department; Visual Literacy Toolbox
Free and open to the public. For more information, contact: Elsa Barkley Brown, Department of Women’s Studies at [email protected] or 301-405-7710.