Sharon Hayes
born 1970 in Baltimorelives and works in New York
The work of Sharon Hayes spans the genres of video, action and installation.
Her politically motivated actions explore complex social relationships and themes, principally taken from American history. These actions, which usually take the form of protests, demonstrations and speeches are staged in public spaces and draw on conceptual art and academic practice by involving elements of film, theatre, anthropology, linguistics and journalism.
Her most recent action, performed at the 2009 Istanbul Biennial I Didn’t Know I Loved you, is a site-specific, collaborative performance that explores the processes in which collective and social identifies are formed. The piece is part of the artist’s ongoing interest in public pronouncements and demonstrates the role of speech and rhetoric in politics and in personal relationships between lovers, for example.