Elizabeth Stephens

Last updated

Beth Stephens
Elizabeth Stephens near Cambria, California in 2016.jpg
Elizabeth Stephens near Cambria, California in 2016
Born
Elizabeth M. Stephens

(1960-11-18) November 18, 1960 (age 63)
EducationB.F.A., Tufts University (1986)
M.F.A., Rutgers University (1992)
Ph.D. UC Davis (2015)
Occupations
  • Artist
  • sculptor
  • filmmaker
  • art professor
  • performer
  • professor
  • Chair of the Art Department at UC Santa Cruz
Employer UC Santa Cruz
Notable workSexEcology, Love Art Laboratory
TitleProfessor
Spouse
(m. 2007)

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

Contents

Early life

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] In her youth, her family attended a Presbyterian church. [3]

Career

Stephens studied Fine Arts at Tufts University, The Museum School, and Rutgers University. She worked with Martha Rosler and Geoffrey Hendricks [4] in her graduate education. She has been a professor at UCSC since 1993, chaired the department from 2006 until 2009 and again from 2017 until 2020. [5]

Love Art Laboratory

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. [6] Sprinkle and Stephens have done seventeen art weddings, fourteen with ecosexual themes. Critics relate the project to contemporary political debates including marriage equality, [7] ecofeminism, and the environmental movement. [2] [8] [9] Critics also note that Stephens' work explores and challenges the validity of the boundary between what is "art," and what is "pornography." [10]

The Schlesinger Library at Harvard University acquired Stephen's papers, primarily focused on the Love Art Laboratory, and including her and her partner's work on Goodbye Gauley Mountain and their work at Documenta 2017. [11]

Ecosexuality

Starting with their 2008 performance wedding to the Earth, Stephens and her partner Annie Sprinkle became pioneers of ecosexuality, a kind of earth-loving sexual identity, which states, "The Earth is our lover." Their Ecosex Manifesto proclaims that anyone can identify as an Ecosexual along with being "GLBTQI, heterosexual, asexual, and/or Other." They married the Earth, Sky, Sea, Moon, Appalachian Mountains, the Sun, and other non-human entities in nine different countries. [12] Stephen's and Sprinkle's 2011 White Wedding to the Snow at the deconsecrated Saint Brigid's Church (Ottawa), by then St. Bridid’s Centre for the Arts, followed their performance at Montreal's Edgy Women Festival. [13]

Feature films

Most recently Stephens has produced and directed two feature documentary films with Annie Sprinkle: Water Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure (2017) and Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story (2013), [14] a film addressing Mountaintop removal mining near her birthplace and its effects on the environment and nearby communities. [15]

International exhibitions

Her work has been shown internationally, including at Museum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf), El Ojo Atomico Antimuseo de Arte Contemporáneo Archived January 15, 2018, at the Wayback Machine [16] (Spain), Museo Reina Sophia (Madrid), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 53rd Venice Biennale, and Documenta 14.

In 2017, Stephens and her wife/collaborator Annie Sprinkle were official artists in Documenta 14. They presented performances and visual art, lectured, and previewed their new film documentary, Water Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure. [17] [18]

Awards

Stephens was awarded a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship in the creative arts category: film-video, appearing in the List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 2021.

Bibliography

Director

Articles

Books

Film/Video

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urolagnia</span> Paraphilia associated with urine or urination

Urolagnia is a paraphilia in which sexual excitement is associated with the sight or thought of urine or urination. The term has origins in the Greek language. Golden shower is slang for the practice of urinating on another person for sexual pleasure, while watersports is the more inclusive term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie Sprinkle</span> American pornographic actress and sex educator (born 1954)

Annie M. Sprinkle is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lydia Lunch</span> American singer (born 1959)

Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no wave scene as the singer and guitarist of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks.

Linda Mary Montano is an American performance artist.

<i>The Parent Trap</i> (1998 film) 1998 film directed by Nancy Meyers

The Parent Trap is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Nancy Meyers in her directorial debut, who also wrote with David Swift and Charles Shyer, who also produced. It is a remake of the 1961 film of the same name and an adaptation of Erich Kästner's 1949 German novel Lisa and Lottie.

Marc Stevens was an American erotic performer. He is sometimes credited as Mark '10½' Stevens or Mark Stevens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Pacheco</span> American pornographic actor

Richard Pacheco is an American former pornographic film and video actor, writer and director who retired from the X-rated business in the mid-1980s.

Geoffrey Hendricks was an American artist associated with Fluxus since the mid 1960s. He was professor of art at Douglass College, Rutgers University, where he taught from 1956 to 2003 and was associated with Fluxus at Rutgers University, Allan Kaprow, Roy Lichtenstein, and Lucas Samaras during the 1960s.

The One Minutes is a global platform for one-minute videos. The One Minutes Foundation produces and distributes One Minutes, providing a platform for people to create and connect through short, accessible video art.

Carol Leigh, also known as The Scarlot Harlot, was an American artist, author, filmmaker, sex worker, and sex workers' rights activist. She is credited with coining the term sex work and founded the Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival and was the co-founder of BAYSWAN, the Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Moore (performance artist)</span> American performance artist

Frank James Moore was an American performance artist, shaman, poet, essayist, painter, musician and Internet/television personality who experimented in art, performance, ritual, and shamanistic teaching since the late 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pornographic film actor</span> Person who performs in pornography

A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts on video that is usually characterized as a pornographic movie. Such videos tend to be made in a number of distinct pornographic subgenres and attempt to present a sexual fantasy; the actors selected for a particular role are primarily selected on their ability to create or fit that fantasy. Pornographic videos are characterized as either softcore, which does not contain depictions of sexual penetration or extreme fetishism, and hardcore, which can contain depictions of penetration or extreme fetishism, or both. The genres and sexual intensity of videos is mainly determined by demand. Depending on the genre of the film, the on-screen appearance, age, and physical features of the actors and their ability to create the sexual mood of the video is of critical importance. Most actors specialize in certain genres, such as straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, bondage, strap-on, anal, double penetration, semen swallowing, teenage, orgy, age roleplay, fauxcest, interracial or MILFs and more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual Freedom Awards</span> British sex industry awards event

The Sexual Freedom Awards is an annual British event that honours achievement in the sexuality and erotica industries worldwide.

The Edgy Women Festival was an annual festival of "short, highly physical works by women, often characterized by a transdisciplinary approach and politicized content." which ran for 23 years from 1994 to 2016. Presented by Studio 303, a dance and interdisciplinary-arts centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Edgy Women focuses on feminist perspectives with workshops and forums, performance events, and socializing. Studio 303's artistic and general manager Miriam Ginestier programmed Edgy Women from 1995 to 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madison Young</span> American pornographic actress and director (born 1980)

Madison Young is an American filmmaker, author, performance artist, feminist activist, and former adult film performer and award-winning erotic filmmaker. Young is a prominent figure in the feminist porn movement and is known for their work as a queer and kink-focused educator and an advocate of sex workers' rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Femina Potens Art Gallery</span> Art gallery in California, United States

Femina Potens was a non-profit art gallery and performance art space active from 2001 to 2016, and located in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2001 by artistic director Madison Young, which sought to bring greater visibility and advancement to female artists, including queer and transgender ones. The gallery highlighted feminist pornography, as well as sex work.

Feminist pornography, also known by other terms in internet such as 'ethical porn' or 'fair-trade porn' is a genre of film developed by or for those within the sex-positive feminist movement. It was created for the purpose of promoting gender equality by portraying more bodily movements and sexual fantasies of women and members of the LGBT community.

A feminist stripper is a professional exotic dancer who does not conform to the stereotypes associated with exotic dancers, and instead identifies positively with the identity of stripper. Feminist strippers are sex-positive feminists who view their profession as a choice and a career field. Feminist strippers interact with their profession in a positive manner and view it as a female-centric form of power by asserting their autonomy and by making informed decisions in regard to the regulation of their bodies.

Sexecology, also known as ecosexuality, is a radical form of environmental activism based around nature fetishism, the idea of the earth as a lover. It invites people to treat the earth with love rather than see it as an infinite resource to exploit. It was founded by Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, who describe themselves as "two ecosexual artists-in-love", whose manifesto is to make environment activism "more sexy, fun, and diverse". Sexecology employs absurdist humor, performance art and sex-positivity, which Stephens claims "may produce new forms of knowledge that hold potential to alter the future by privileging our desire for the Earth to function with as many diverse, intact and flourishing ecological systems as possible." The couple promote education, events such as the ecosex symposium, and activism, such as protecting the Appalachian Mountains from mountain top removal.

documenta 14 2017 art exhibition in Kassel, Germany

Documenta 14 was the fourteenth edition of the art exhibition documenta and took place in 2017 in both Kassel, Germany, its traditional home, and Athens, Greece. It was held first in Athens from 8 April to 16 July, and in Kassel from 10 June to 17 September 2017. As part of the concept of the artistic director Adam Szymczyk, the exhibition proceeded in both countries with most featured artists working at both locations.

References

  1. Toronto Life: Double Exposure Archived February 16, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  2. 1 2 McSpadden, Russ (June 27, 2013). "An Interview with Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle". Earth First! Journal. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2013. Following her artistic dreams, she left the trappings of racism and heterosexism in Appalachia to New York and San Francisco where she married the Earth, the Sea and Annie more than fifteen times.
  3. "Ecosexual History". Elizabeth Stephens. Retrieved October 9, 2022.
  4. "Brooklyn Museum" . Retrieved November 4, 2013.
  5. Bacalzo, Dan (April 30, 2007). "Exposed". Theater Mania. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
  6. Benn, D. (2006). "Annie Sprinkle on the Adult Star Path of Fame: 43 Stars Laid in New Jersey". Porno News Network.[ permanent dead link ]
  7. Buckner, Clark. "I Do". San Francisco Bay Guardian. Vol. 39, no. 17. Retrieved November 4, 2013. the artists make their personal lives public and, in so doing, challenge the policies of the state. Stephens and Sprinkle refuse to be denied their right to marry and lay claim to it on grounds that exceed the authority of the government. They present marriage as a cultural institution shaped by interpersonal dynamics and demonstrate the power of groups to construct communal bonds and systems of meaning on their own terms. In the process, they thematize the art already at work in social institutions – and in marriage and gender roles in particular.
  8. Khimasia, Anna (September 15, 2011). "Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens". Canadian Art. Archived from the original on April 25, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2013. Each Sprinkle-and-Stephens wedding stresses not only sexuality and the environment, but also collaboration, participation and community. With more than 60 local, national and international performers and artists, and a technical and production team of 30, the Ottawa nuptials were also a tribute to performance in its broadest sense. The 300-plus guests were invited to participate by marrying the snow; wedding rings were provided in the afternoon's program, and guests were encouraged to make individual vows to the environment.
  9. Dickinson, Peter (2010). World stages, local audiences: Essays on performance, place and politics. Manchester University Press. pp. 116–124.
  10. Dennis, Kelly (2009). Art/Porn, A History of Seeing and Touching. Berg Press, New York, NY. pp. 71, 172.
  11. Stephens, Beth. "Papers of Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, 2002-2017". Schlesinger Library. Harvard Library. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  12. Johns, Merryn (March 1, 2011). "Annie Sprinkle & Elizabeth Stephens: why these "love artists" are making the environmental movement sexy and fun.(TOP TEN REASONS WE LOVE...)". CURVE. 21 (2): 80.
  13. Sprinkle, Annie. "White Wedding to the Snow". LoveArtLab. University of California Santa Cruz. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  14. ""Goodbye Gauley Mountain" (2017) – film website".
  15. Archer, Greg (August 15, 2013). "Goodbye Gauley Mountain: One Of The Most Seductive Environmental Documentaries Of The Year". Huffington Post. Retrieved November 4, 2013. In between, the audience is offered a heartfelt look at the people, the towns, the companies responsible for the drama and more. Although Stephens narrates the story, the duo produced, directed, and star in the film together. But it's Stephens who gives the film much of its heart. Part autobiography, part coal mining history, and part performance art soiree, the sobering mix of honesty and playfulness is downright infectious.
  16. Ruiz-Rivas, Tomás (February 18, 2006). "Love Party 2". Archived from the original on January 8, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
  17. Theobald, Stephanie (May 15, 2017). "Nature is your lover, not your mother: meet ecosexual pioneer Annie Sprinkle". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  18. "Video: "Ecosexual Walking Tour" of female porn activist Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens in Kassel during documenta 14". YouTube . July 12, 2017. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  19. Item Details Page for Assuming the ecosexual position : The Earth as lover. University of Minnesota Press. 2021.