Clarity Haynes
Baba Na Gig
The Kniznick Gallery presents a solo exhibition of Clarity Haynes. Haynes' large-scale painted portraits explore the torso as a site for portraiture, paying homage to women, trans and gender nonconforming people. Tattoos, scars, evidence of illness, aging, exposure to sun, childbirth, surgeries, synthetic hormones, moles, birthmarks, stretch marks and veins all tell a story of a body's life, and Haynes seeks to portray them larger-than-life and divine. "Baba Na Gig" borrows its name from Baba Yaga, the old woman goddess of Eastern Europe, and the goddess Sheela Na-Gig, or "Sheela of the Breasts." For Haynes, what becomes "Old Woman of the Breast" opens up for us a generative space in which to see her subjects seeing themselves.
Haynes' work acknowledges the history of portraying social power through the painted portrait and redistributes power to people outside of cultural norms. Her years-long process of making each work contributes to a reverence for the way bodies change and redefine what power can be.
Selected Press
March 21, 2018
Hyperallergic
December 27, 2017
The Pitch
Events
February 6, 2018
January 30, 2018
WSRC Scholar, art historian and museum educator Annie Storr will lead art experiencing exercises through the Kniznick Gallery exhibition "Clarity Haynes | Baba Na Gig." Storr developed Exercises for the Quiet Eye to encourage patient reflection, appreciation and an attempt to avoid the rush to understand or determine a set interpretation for what we see.
February 16, 2018
In conjunction with the exhibition "Clarity Haynes | Baba Na Gig," founding co-authors of "Our Bodies, Ourselves" (OBOS) Judy Norsigian and WSRC Scholar Paula Doress-Worters will discuss the present-day mission of OBOS and the history of the radical feminist text on women's bodies and health, first published in 1970 as "Women and Their Bodies; A Course." Today, the organization Our Bodies, Ourselves maintains a website, with the most recent print edition published in 2011. Bring your edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves" for a discussion and book signing.