Jena Heaton, Clemson University Art Department BFA Candidate in photography, has been at the Penland School of Crafts in the North Carolina Mountains since May 26 on a scholarship from Clemson University and the Center for Visual Arts studying with Ellen Eisenman and Clarissa Sligh. The workshop, Photography, Community & the Social Self, has been about using photography in
community, educational, and/or social projects. Participants have planed a new project or
extended an existing one, using written and photographic exercises, critiques,
and team collaborations on workshop projects to clarify the goals and
vocabulary for their work. They have worked with ideas of individual and collective
experience, voice, communication, values, structure, sequence, dilemmas,
ethics, and evaluation.
Ellen Eisenman, here we stand, archival photographs, thread,
shells, silver wire, 28 x 28 in. & Clarissa Sligh, Hope,
beads,
origami cranes made from pages of white
supremacist books, 60 in. tall
In a written statement, Eisenman said, "I’m interested
in making a clear visual connection between manual laborers, art
workers, and community workers. This work is rooted in the narrative
tradition of documentary photography as well as the use of quilting in
preserving family and community histories. I work with archival
photographs, which I sew together with thread and fixe in place with
nails, pins, or silver wire along with glass, stone, or metal beads. The
tactile process of sifting through traces of memory, sewing together
fragments, and combining images provides a framework for reflecting on
the connections between our personal and social experiences."
Ellen Eisenman is a studio artist and community worker with
exhibitions at: ArtScape (South Africa), Broome Street Gallery (NYC),
Franklin University Gallery (OH), Calico Gallery (OH), Goddard Riverside
Community Center (NYC), ArtScape (Cape Town, South Africa), Columbus
Museum (OH). Clarissa Sligh is a studio artist who has taught at New
York University, School of Visual Arts (NYC) and hs work in the collections of the Museum of
Modern Art (NYC) and the George Eastman House (NY). clarissasligh.com
For more information on Penland, go to: http://penland.org/.
