Dangerous Bodies: The Use of the Body

In this three-part series taught by artist, writer, and PAFA alum Clarity Haynes participants will look at the suppression of queer, trans, and feminist representation of bodies in contemporary art and art history. Haynes’ will begin with the contemporary problem of social media censorship, a topic she’s personally experienced and written about in her Hyperallergic Piece, I’m a Queer Feminist Artist. Why Are My Paintings Censored on Social Media?

Dangerous Bodies will revisit the classic feminist question of the male gaze and ask what kinds of bodies are deemed unacceptable? Participants will consider ways that the female, maternal, aging, ill, disabled, fat, nonwhite, queer and trans body has been depicted and erased in art history.

Haynes will be speaking as an artist rather than the art historian, showcasing image makers and thinkers who have inspired her. Focusing mostly on painting, photography, and portraiture, we will look at work by a multitude of artists, including Paula Modersohn-Becker, Mickalene Thomas, Betty Tompkins, Jo Spence, Barbara Hammer, Ana Mendieta, Laura Aguilar, Riva Lehrer, Juliana Huxtable, Nona Faustine, Chitra Ganesh, and Deana Lawson. Alison Gingeras, Diane Radycki, Saidiya Hartman, Claudia Rankine and Sara Ahmed are a few of the curators and writers Haynes will reference.

Important Note: To help accommodate diverse schedules, individual class sessions will be recorded and made available to class participants for a week after each class takes place.

This program is offered in conjunction with the exhibitions Only Tony: Portraits by Gilbert Lewis and Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale.