Accomplished sculptor and performance artist, Janine Antoni, will give a lecture regarding her career and inspiration on Wednesday, October 24, 2007, in Ellison Lecture, Watson Fine Arts at 7 p.m.

October 22, 2007

Accomplished sculptor and performance artist, Janine Antoni, will give a lecture regarding her career and inspiration on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 in Ellison Lecture, Watson Fine Arts at 7:00 p.m.

In her work, Antoni focuses on turning bodily functions and habits such as eating, sleeping and bathing, into sculptural processes. For her 1992 piece, Gnaw, she chewed on blocks of chocolate and lard; the masticated materials were formed into a box of candy and a tube of lipstick to be displayed alongside the chiseled remains. This utilization of her own body as an artist tool is also illustrated in her 1994 performance installation, Loving Care, in which Antoni mopped a floor with her hair soaked in Loving Care hair dye.

Recently, Antoni has extended her interest in the body as a medium to include issues of endurance and balance. The 2003 solo exhibition, To Draw a Line, involved the artist walking across a tightrope she had woven by hand. Similarly, for the piece titled Moor, Antoni taught herself how to make a loose rope and constructed one symbolic of an enduring lifeline by incorporating personal articles from her friends and family.

These and countless other works have drawn attention to Antoni's unique and creative focus. She is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship in 1998 and the Larry Aldrich Foundation Award in 1999. Antoni has had major exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, SITE Sante Fe and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.

The lecture is sponsored by the Celeste Gottesman Bartos '35 Fund for the Visual Arts within the Evelyn Danzig Haas '39 Visiting Artists Program.