Ann Fessler is an author, filmmaker, video-installation artist, and a professor emerita at the Rhode Island School of Design.[1] Her work reconciles the division between lived history and recorded history from a feminist perspective. She is especially known for her work dealing with adoption before legalized abortion and the experiences of women who surrendered children in the 1950s and 60s; particularly women who were seen as unfit mothers due to being a single parent.[2]
Education edit
Fessler graduated with an MFA from the School of Art's Photography division of the University of Arizona, where she received the Harold Jones Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007.[3]
Work edit
Ann Fessler's work utilizes the stories of women and focuses on how myths, stereotypes, and mass media images, can impact women's lives and their intimate relationships.[4] Fessler's first installation project was her 1984 installation created for the Washington Project of the Arts on the subject of rape and violence against women.[5] The installation appropriated images of French painter Nicolas Poussin's famous 17th-century painting, The Rape of the Sabine Women, to show how art history itself has become a silent conspirator in the subjugation of women and the equation of female gender with passive victimhood.[5]
Fessler was 56 years old when she first met her biological mother. Using her personal adoption story as the basis of The girls who went away, she tells the story of over a hundred women who surrendered children for adoption prior to legalized abortion.[6] In 2012 her documentary film, A Girl Like Her was released.
Awards edit
Fessler is the recipient of visual art and film grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the LEF Foundation, the Rhode Island Foundation, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Art Matters, N]; Maryland State Arts Council and the Rhode Island State Arts Council.[7]
Collections edit
Multiple bodies of her work have been widely exhibited in galleries, museums, and film festivals since the 1980s. Her work is included in the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.[1]
Bibliography edit
- Fessler, Ann (2006). The girls who went away: the hidden history of women who surrendered children for adoption in the decades before Roe v. Wade. New York: Penguin Press. ISBN 1594200947. OCLC 62593825.
References edit
- ^ a b "Ann Fessler - Professor Emeritus". Rhode Island School of Design. Archived from the original on 28 November 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
- ^ "Ann Fessler - The Girls Who Went Away". Soapbox, Inc. Archived from the original on 20 February 2024. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
- ^ Warren, Allison (15 October 2007). "UA alumna returns to receive award". The Daily Wildcat. Archived from the original on 14 May 2024. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
- ^ "Bio – Ann Fessler". A Girl Like Her. Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
- ^ a b McNatt, Glenn (15 December 1996). "The powerful influence of feminism on art today". The Baltimore Sun. pp. 1E. ProQuest 406955234.
- ^ Harrison, Kathryn (11 June 2006). "In Trouble". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
- ^ "Authors: Ann Fessler". Penguin Random House. Archived from the original on 10 May 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
External links edit
- Ann Fessler, artist website
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