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Claire Zeisler: Fiber Artist

Patricia Erens

1979 00:35:55 United StatesEnglishColor4:33/4" U-matic video
Tags:
Chicago Art, Interview, Sculpture, Independently Produced Interviews

Description

Fiber artist Claire Zeisler discusses her techniques, ideas on art, and training; the conversation is inter-cut with images from her 1979 retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago. “I... realized I cannot change my techniques too often. I would rather use techniques that I know and keep on perfecting them because I feel that in keeping on and perfecting them, I’m going to find something else to say,” Zeisler says in this interview with Rhona Hoffman. “I thought at the time that an artist had to change techniques, change ideas, keep current with what’s going on, and that’s very superficial.” 

About Patricia Erens

Patricia Brett Erens is a professor of film studies at Dominican University as well as an adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received an MA in English literature from the University of Chicago and her doctorate in film studies from Northwestern University. She has taught at San Francisoco State University, Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at the University of Hong Kong.Dr. Erens has published six books on film and art history. These include: Sexual Stratagems: the World of Women and Film, The Jew in American Cinema, and Issues in Feminist Film Criticism. She has also published dozens of articles on ethnicity in film, women directors and Asian cinema. In additional to her publishing, Dr. Erens received a Senior Fulbright Lectureship and has produced films on the Holocaust, fiber artist Claire Zeisler and most recently on The New York Times.