Clarity Haynes

Baba Na Gig

Monday, Nov. 13 – Feb. 16, 2018

Clarity Haynes' large scale painted portrait entitled "Jaece." depicts a woman's torso and breasts from her navel up to her shoulders. She is wearing shorts  and a pendant, but no shirt. 2015. Oil on linen, 58" x 66". Clarity Haynes, "Jaece," 2015. Oil on linen, 58" x 66".

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.

Events

Artist's Lecture and Reception

February 6, 2018

Exercises for the Quiet Eye with Annie Storr

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.

Our Bodies, Ourselves 2018

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.