Michèle Pearson Clarke (born February 16, 1973) is a

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

filmmaker and photographer based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada.

Early life

Clarke was born in

Port of Spain Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

, and was educated at Queen's University and the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. She received her MFA from

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public university, public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Garden District, although i ...

in 2015.

Career

Her first film, ''Surrounded by Water'', was completed through the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto. Her second film, ''Black Men and Me'', was featured in the 2007

Inside Out Film and Video Festival Inside may refer to: * Insider, a member of any group of people of limited number and generally restricted access Film * ''Inside'' (1996 film), an American television film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Eric Stoltz * ''Inside'' (2002 f ...

and explores Clarke's perceptions of black masculinity from a black lesbian's perspective. The film has since been featured at the 2007 Reel World Film Festival (Toronto), the 2007 Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the 2007

San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival The Frameline Film Festival (aka San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival) (formerly San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival; San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival) began as a storefront event in 1976. The first ...

. Clarke is also an author and has been published in ''Bent on Writing: An Anthology of Queer Tales''. In 2013, she started a portrait series "It’s Good To Be Needed," in which she photographed ex-partners who remained friends holding hands. In 2016, she was commissioned by

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a public art gallery in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest public art gallery in the Regional Municipality of Durham, of which Oshawa is a part. The gallery houses a significant collection of Canadian conte ...

in Oshawa, Ontario, to create a two-channel video installation called "I’m Thinking of Ending Things." The project commemorates the 150 years or Oshawa's manufacturing history through personal stories of job loss. Clarke's video work "Suck Teeth Compositions (After Rashaad Newsome)" was included in ''Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art,'' an exhibition at the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

in 2018. That same year her work was included at the LagosPhoto Festival. Clarke's 2018 exhibition in Toronto, ''A Welcome Weight on My Body'', explored film in photographic form, focusing on creating analog still images of Caribbean Canadian friends and family, whom she found missing or exploited in the genre historically. The scrapbook-like installation of photographs hung in composition of groups on shelves, floor, in wood or metal frames complicated the presentation, in an attempt to pull them away from a

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

, colder conceptual tradition. In this exhibition Clarke explores the cultural weight of Blackness and presents the photographs in a way that is meant to feel approachable and part of a practice as opposed masterful print and modern presentation. In 2018 Clarke exhibited her video titled "All That Is Left Unsaid" in Los Angeles. In the video Clarke edited together all of the moments without speech from an

Audre Lorde Audre Lorde (; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," who ...

documentary.

References

Publications

* ''Visitor Information'' (2017). Oshawa: The Robert McLaughlin Gallery,

External links

Artist website
*Archived page for Black Men and Me program listing
San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Michele 1973 births Living people Canadian lesbian writers LGBT film directors Artists from Toronto Film directors from Toronto Writers from Toronto Queen's University at Kingston alumni Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to Canada University of Toronto alumni Black Canadian filmmakers Black Canadian women Black Canadian LGBT people Caribbean artists