Feb. 24: Paul Jones Lecture
Clark to speak on 'From Hair to There' in annual Paul R. Jones Lecture
1:04 p.m., Feb. 21, 2013--Artist Sonya Clark of Virginia Commonwealth University will deliver the University of Delaware’s annual Paul R. Jones Lecture at 3 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 24, at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington.
Clark will speak on the topic “From Hair to There.”
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Clark, who is professor and chair of the Department of Craft and Material Studies at VCU, works with the premise that hairdressing is the first textile art. Hair is both her subject and medium, as are the accouterments of hair care, hair styling, and adornment such as combs.
Clark makes hair into cloth, cloth into hair, and combs into cloth and hair. Combining perspectives of form and material culture, her works engage the politics of race and beauty with and through the culture of hair.
“I work in series to reframe the object as a compilation of our stories,” notes Clark. “In this way, the everyday ‘thing’ becomes a lens through which we may better see one another.”
Clark serves on the board of the American Craft Council and the advisory board of the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C.
The Paul R. Jones Lecture honors the late Paul R. Jones’ gift of African American art to the University of Delaware and is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences’ Paul R. Jones Initiative and the University Museums.