For Immediate Release
January 29, 2024

CLARK ART INSTITUTE RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC PROGRAM PRESENTS LECTURE ON LITTORAL LAW

Williamstown, Massachusetts—On Tuesday, February 27 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program hosts a lecture by Sora Han (University of California, Irvine / Clark Fellow) at 5:30 pm in the Clark’s auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center. The free talk examines the colonial law of the high seas and its various doctrines regulating everchanging natural borders between land and water to inform a reading of the break between the oceanic of law’s words and how contemporary artists rearticulate them into other aesthetic forms.

The focus of Han’s lecture is Charles Gaines’s Manifestos 4 (2020) and Sky Box II (2020), which break the words of the infamous 1857 Supreme Court opinion, Dred Scott v. Sanford, with alternative rules-based processes of musical and sculptural composition. Breaking law conceptually offers a portal to a mystical realm of legal experience and interpretation beyond nomos into an arranging, translational field of black study.

Sora Han is professor of criminology, law & society, comparative literature, and African American studies, and is affiliated faculty with the School of Law at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on the law and history of slavery and abolitionism, and Lacanian psychoanalysis and poetics. She is the author of numerous articles and books, including Letters of the Law (Stanford University Press 2016); the law casebook, Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, 3rd Edition (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020); the multimedia essay, Res Nulla Loquitur in b2o (2022); and Mu: 49 Marks of Abolition (Duke University Press 2024). Her first book of poetry, ㅁ: to regard a wave, is forthcoming from Selva Oscura Press in 2024. At the Clark, she will be working on a book project titled Break Law, which explores how a new genre of contemporary art uses the written texts of American jurisprudence to make drawings, sculptures, videos, musical compositions, and other multimedia forms.

A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the free program. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events. 

The next Research and Academic Program lecture is presented by Erica Moiah James (University of Miami and Clark/Oakley Humanities Fellow) and provides a careful study of Portrait of a Young Woman (c. 1780), a pastel work by an unknown artist. James uses the material archive provided by the sitter’s dress, jewelry, and cotton head-tie to establish her as a Black, Caribbean, creole woman. The talk takes place on Tuesday, March 5 at 5:30 pm in the Clark’s auditorium.

ABOUT THE CLARK
The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of more than 285,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.

The Clark, which has a three-star rating in the Michelin Green Guide, is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Its 140-acre campus includes miles of hiking and walking trails through woodlands and meadows, providing an exceptional experience of art in nature. Galleries are open 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Sunday, from September through June, and daily in July and August. Admission is free January through March and is $20 from March through December; admission is free year-round for Clark members, all visitors age 21 and under, and students with a valid student ID. Free admission is also available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; and EBT Card to Culture. For information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.

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