Image: study by Nicki Green

Jeanne Vaccaro, Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and Museum Studies, The University of Kansas

Construction as Commitment: Nicki Green's Alchemical Clay 

This talk takes sculptor Nicki Green's assertion that "clay is a trans material" as its starting point. In clay, the artist uses hand-making to study rituals of belonging and becoming, conveying construction as one iteration of commitment. The talk will engage the range of Green's practice as anchored in the ecstatic mysticism of the everyday.

Jeanne Vaccaro is a scholar and curator of contemporary art and public practice. Her writing and social practice trace the idiosyncrasy of the archive to activate liberation histories and coalitions. Jeanne’s book in process, Handmade: feelings and textures of transgender, considers the felt labor of making identity, and was awarded the Arts Writers Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation. Jeanne received her Ph.D. in Performance Studies at New York University under the mentorship of José Esteban Muñoz. She is Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Museum Studies at the University of Kansas, and affiliate faculty at the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. 

This lecture is generously supported by the UVA Department of Women, Gender & Sexuality.