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
The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge ...
. Stephens, who describes herself as "
ecosexual", collaborates with her wife since 2002, ecosexual artist, radical sex educator, and performer
Annie Sprinkle.
Early life
Stephens was born in
Montgomery,
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
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.
In her youth, her family attended a Presbyterian church.
Career
Stephens studied Fine Arts at
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
,
The Museum School
The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusett ...
, and
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
. She worked with
Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler (born 1943) is an American artist. She is a conceptual artist who works in photography and photo text, video, installation, sculpture, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture. Rosler's work is centered on everyday ...
and
Geoffrey Hendricks 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.
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. Sprinkle and Stephens have done seventeen art weddings, fourteen with ecosexual themes. Critics relate the project to contemporary political debates including marriage equality,
ecofeminism, and the environmental movement.
Critics also note that Stephens' work explores and challenges the validity of the boundary between what is "art," and what is "pornography."
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 including at Montreal's
Edgy Women Festival in 2011.
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), a film addressing
Mountaintop removal mining
Mountaintop removal mining (MTR), also known as mountaintop mining (MTM), is a form of surface mining at the summit or summit ridge of a mountain. Coal seams are extracted from a mountain by removing the land, or overburden, above the seams. Thi ...
near her birthplace and its effects on the environment and nearby communities.
International exhibitions
Her work has been shown internationally, including at
Museum Kunstpalast (
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
)
El Ojo Atomico Antimuseo de Arte Contemporáneo (
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
),
Museo Reina Sophia (Madrid), the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and wa ...
, 53rd
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
, and
Documenta 14
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 ...
.
In 2017, Stephens and her wife/collaborator
Annie Sprinkle were official artists in
Documenta 14
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 ...
. They presented performances and visual art, lectured, and previewed their new film documentary, Water Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure.
Awards
Stephens was awarded a 2021
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
in the creative arts category: film-video, appearing in the
List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 2021
List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 2021:
References
{{reflist
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A ...
.
Bibliography
Director
* 2017 ''Water Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure''
* 2013 ''Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story''
* 2006 ''Exposed; Experiments in Love, Sex, Death and Art''
* 2006 ''Orange Wedding Two''
* 2006 ''Red Wedding One''
* 2005 ''Kiss''
* 2004 ''Lüba; The Mother Teresa of Art''
* 1992 ''Do You Mind?''
* 1989 ''Interviews with Oaxacan Women''
* 1989 ''Women Eating''
Articles
* 2017 ''Documenta 14: Daybook'', eds. Laimer, Quinn, Adam Symczyk, Prestel Press, Munich-London-New York, 2017, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, April 24 pgs 19-20.
* 2010 ''Post Porn Politics; Queer_Feminist Perspective on the Politics of Porn Performance and Sex_Work as Culture Production'', Post Porn Brunch, Elizabeth M. Stephens, Annie M. Sprinkle and Cosey Fanni Tutti, ed. Tim Stüttgen, B_Books, Berlin, Germany pages 88–115
* 2008 ''Live through This; On Creativity and Self Destruction'', Double Trouble in the Love Art Lab: Our Breast Cancer Experiments. ed. Sabrina Chapadjiev, Seven Stories Press, New York, pp 105–117
* 2004 ''Interview of Annie Sprinkle for Women and Performance'' — 20th Anniversary Issue, New York University Press
* 1998 ''Looking Class Heroes: Dykes on Bikes Cruising Calendar Girls'' The Passionate Camera: Photography and Bodies of Desire
Books
* 2021 ''Assuming the Ecosexual Position: The Earth as Lover'' with Annie Sprinkle, Jennie Klein, Una Chaudhuri, Paul B. Preciado, and Linda M. Montano. University of Minnesota Press.
Film/Video
* 2017 ''Water Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure''
* 2013 Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story
* 2011 Purple Wedding to the Moon, White Wedding to the Snow
* 2010 Purple Wedding to the Appalachian Mountains
* 2009 Blue Wedding to the Sky/Sea Video
* 2008 Green Wedding Four to the Earth
* 2007 Big Nudes Descending a Staircase
* 2007 Etant Donnees
* 2007 Yellow Wedding Three
* 2006 Exposed; Experiments in Love, Sex, Death and Art
* 2006 Orange Wedding Two
* 2006 Red Wedding One
* 2005 Kiss
* 2004 Lüba; The Mother Teresa of Art
* 1992 Do You Mind?
* 1989 Interviews with Oaxacan Women
* 1989 Women Eating
References
External links
* sprinklestephens.org
Art Department page at University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC)Curriculum VitaeLove Art LabSexEcologyEcosex ManifestoE.A.R.T.H. Lab SF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Elizabeth
Feminist artists
American LGBT sculptors
American LGBT entertainers
Living people
Rutgers University alumni
American sex educators
Sex-positive feminists
Third-wave feminism
Tufts University alumni
LGBT feminists
1960 births
University of California, Santa Cruz faculty
People from Montgomery, West Virginia
University of California, Davis alumni
Queer feminists
Artists from West Virginia
LGBT film directors