April 10, 2003
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.- The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College presents "A Conversation between Carolee Schneemann and Kristine Stiles on Fluxus, Process, and Purpose," on Tues., April 15, at 4:30 p.m. in Pruyne Lecture Hall, Fayerweather 115. Originally scheduled for Feb. 17, this event takes place in conjunction with the Mead's exhibition, "Critical Mass: Happenings, Fluxus, Performance, Intermedia and Rutgers University, 1958-1972." This talk is co-sponsored by the departments of fine arts and women's and gender studies.

Schneemann was one of the first artists to use her body to examine the relationship between actual experiences and the imagination, often addressing issues that are erotic, sacred or taboo. A prolific writer, she incorporates thoughts from her journals and feminist essays into her work, ultimately producing a visceral fusion of sensory encounters (as evidenced in the video of her 1964 performance piece, Meat Joy, on view at the Mead).

Kristine Stiles, associate professor of art and art history at Duke University, teaches and writes widely on topics of avant-garde and experimental art. Her work stems from the intersection of art, the body, memory and societal taboos. Her publications include Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings (co-edited with Peter Selz) and the forthcoming Uncorrupted Joy: Art Actions, History and Social Value, as well as the essay "Anomaly, Skit, Sex and Psi in Fluxus" in Critical Mass: Happenings, Fluxus, Performance, and Intermedia at Rutgers 1958-1972, the catalogue of the current exhibition. A noted commentator on Schneemann's work, she has just completed Correspondence Course: Selected Letters of Carolee Schneemann and Her Correspondents: An Epistolary History of Art and Culture.

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