WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Program hosts a talk by Research and Academic Program Fellow Shawn Michelle Smith that contemplates the promises and risks of multispecies imaginings while reflecting on what it means to think about species historically and today. 

 

Smith considers Alison Ruttan's artwork "The Four Year War at Gombe" (2009–2011) in this presentation. 

 

The talk takes place in the Clark's auditorium and is free and open to the public. A reception in the Manton Research Center reading room at 5 pm precedes the program. 

 

Shawn Michelle Smith is professor of visual and critical studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. She studies the history and theory of photography and gender and race in visual culture. Smith has published seven books, including the award-winning titles "At the Edge of Sight: Photography and the Unseen" (Duke University Press, 2013) and "Photographic Returns: Racial Justice and the Time of Photography (Duke University Press, 2020). 

 

Her project at the Clark, titled Environmental Double Consciousness, approaches environmental catastrophe through the lens of critical race studies and is also supported by a 2022 Guggenheim fellowship.

 

Free; no registration is required. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events.