Eleanor Kipping

Eleanor Kipping explores the experience of the Black diasporic female body in the United States through the examination and deconstruction of historical and contemporary narratives.

She is interested in personal and civic negotiations of race, gender, and class that are often informed by her personal experiences as a Black, queer woman born, raised, and educated in primarily white institutions. In 2020, she retreated to her family’s property in Alton, Maine, where she created this two-channel video, Are You Happy

The video consists of personal and found footage, sound, and prose. In it, Kipping collages videos together to replicate the condition known as hypophoria: the tendency for the line of sight of one eye to deviate upward relative to that of the other eye. In Are You Happy, the two channels speak with and against one another, competing for the viewer’s attention while also guiding one through simultaneous considerations of Black life and death, joy, guilt, and loss.  

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“The year 2020 will be infamous for social upheaval and profound suffering that stirred collective moral reflection and taking personal inventory. Artist Eleanor Kipping poses complex questions about the world’s current affairs, and her works prompt the viewer to self-interrogate our personal and shared values and beliefs. The artist who calls us to question and grapple with complexity gives us a gift.” 

- Séan Alonzo HarrisUntitled juror   


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