Colette Copeland

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Colette Copeland is a interdisciplinary visual artist, arts educator, social activist and cultural critic/writer whose work examines issues surrounding gender, death and contemporary culture. Sourcing personal narratives and popular media, she utilizes video, photography, performance and sculptural installation to question societal roles and the pervasive influence of media, and technology on our communal enculturation.

Reflections on the Way to the GallowsVideo Art & Short Film

The Ghost of Elizabeth Wilson

Music by William Harper | Ghost played by Shannon Jeffers

For the past two years, I’ve researched the twenty-one women who were publicly killed in the state of Pennsylvania between 1682-1834. Upon moving to Texas in 2011, I’ve continued my research there. Filming at the sites of the former gallows, as well as creating narratives based on historical documents, I’m interested in the similarities between lynchings (illegal public executions primarily of blacks) and the sanctioned public executions of females. Both occurred for public spectacle and entertainment — the consumption of death for prurient pleasure. It is interesting to note that most of the former gallows sites are now public parks — places for public gatherings. Yet the sites do not allow for visitors to engage or confront tragic history or contemplate/memorialize the victims. In the series of videos, I make the absent present, uncovering the hidden histories that allows for critical discourse. Like many other artists, I have a personal need to understand history, especially atrocity. The work provides a conduit for cultural memory, questioning how we engage in acts of remembrance.

Music by William Harper | Narrated by Eyob Yeshitila | Voiceover sound engineering by Steve Dupuis

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Ball and Chain: The Victorian Woman and THE MAN Reunite

The Ghost of Jane Elkins

Reflections on the Way to the Gallows

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