Elizabeth Stephens Explained

Beth Stephens
Image Upright:0.9
Birth Name:Elizabeth M. Stephens
Birth Date:18 November 1960
Birth Place:Montgomery, West Virginia, U.S.
Education:B.F.A., Tufts University (1986)
M.F.A., Rutgers University (1992)
Ph.D. UC Davis (2015)
Employer:UC Santa Cruz
Notable Works:SexEcology, Love Art Laboratory
Professor

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]

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.[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 [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

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.torontolife.com/features/double-exposure/ Toronto Life: Double Exposure
  2. Web site: An Interview with Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle. Earth First! Journal. McSpadden. Russ. June 27, 2013. 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.. October 19, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131019211956/http://earthfirstjournal.org/journal/brigid-2013/sex-art-and-ecology-in-coal-country/. dead.
  3. Web site: Ecosexual History . Elizabeth Stephens . 2022-10-09.
  4. Web site: Brooklyn Museum. November 4, 2013.
  5. News: Theater Mania. Exposed. Dan. Bacalzo. April 30, 2007. November 4, 2013.
  6. News: Benn . D. . Annie Sprinkle on the Adult Star Path of Fame: 43 Stars Laid in New Jersey . Porno News Network . 2006 .
  7. News: Clark. Buckner. I Do. San Francisco Bay Guardian. November 4, 2013. 39. 17. 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. News: Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens. Canadian Art. Anna. Khimasia. September 15, 2011. 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.. November 4, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130425195150/http://www.canadianart.ca/reviews/2011/09/15/annie-sprinkle-elizabeth-stephens/. April 25, 2013. dead.
  9. Book: Dickinson, Peter . World stages, local audiences: Essays on performance, place and politics. 2010. Manchester University Press. 116–124.
  10. Book: Dennis, Kelly. Art/Porn, A History of Seeing and Touching. Berg Press, New York, NY. 2009. 71, 172 .
  11. Web site: Stephens . Beth . Papers of Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, 2002-2017 . Schlesinger Library . Harvard Library . 30 March 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. Web site: Sprinkle . Annie . White Wedding to the Snow . LoveArtLab . University of California Santa Cruz . 30 March 2023.
  14. Web site: "Goodbye Gauley Mountain" (2017) – film website.
  15. News: Huffington Post. Goodbye Gauley Mountain: One Of The Most Seductive Environmental Documentaries Of The Year. Greg. Archer. August 15, 2013. 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. Web site: Love Party 2 . November 4, 2013 . February 18, 2006 . Tomás . Ruiz-Rivas . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140108190012/http://www.antimuseo.org/archivo_paloveparty2.html . January 8, 2014 .
  17. News: Nature is your lover, not your mother: meet ecosexual pioneer Annie Sprinkle. Theobald. Stephanie. May 15, 2017. The Guardian. January 14, 2018. en-GB. 0261-3077.
  18. Web site: Video: "Ecosexual Walking Tour" of female porn activist Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens in Kassel during documenta 14.. July 12, 2017. YouTube. January 14, 2018.
  19. Book: Item Details Page for Assuming the ecosexual position : The Earth as lover. 2021 . University of Minnesota Press .

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