Elizabeth Stephens

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.

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. In her youth, her family attended a Presbyterian church.

Career

Stephens studied Fine Arts at Tufts University, The Museum School, and Rutgers University. She worked with Martha Rosler 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 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)
El Ojo Atomico Antimuseo de Arte Contemporáneo
(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.

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

* 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 Vitae

Love Art Lab

SexEcology

Ecosex Manifesto

E.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