Sharon Hayes

Sharon Hayes (born in 1970 in Baltimore) lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hayes uses photography, film, video, sound and performance to examine the intersection between the personal and the political. An established line of enquiry throughout her multi-disciplinary practice is the transformative power of language. Hayes pays particular attention to the language of twentieth-century protest groups, investigating the history and construction of collective subject formation. She invites viewers and participants to re-experience speeches, and re-performing demonstrations. Through these methods of enactment Hayes is engaging in what she calls »oral translation«. Her work highlights the friction between common activities and personal actions-examining how the selective imaginary is built.! Hayes has a BA in Anthropology from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine. She attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, New York, 1999-2000, and received an MFA in 2003, from the University of California. She is an Associate Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania.
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The Dialogs are initiated by Adrian William and the Doctoral Studies Program of the HfG Offenbach. The talks will be in English.