Jess Dobkin (born 1970) is a

performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

based in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada. She is best known for her 2006 work ''The Lactation Station''. She has a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...

from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

, and a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

in performance art from

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. She is a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

at the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

Career

Dobkin first emerged as a performance artist in 2002. Her work draws on her experience as a lesbian and a mother. Her body often figures prominently in her performances. For example, ''Fee for Service'' (2006), was a performance installation where audience members were invited to sharpen a pencil in Dobkin's vagina. Dobkin is also known as a community organizer and often combines this with her creative work. In May 2015, after a successful crowdfunding campaign, she collaborated with many Toronto artists to create an alternative newsstand in a vacant kiosk at Chester station in Toronto for one year. Meant as a "creative exchange" for commuters, the kiosk acted as a space for artists' exhibitions and performances, while still functioning as a newsstand selling newspapers, magazines, and snacks for a "monetary exchange." Dobkin sometimes collaborates with other performance artists, including

Martha Wilson Martha Wilson (born 1947 in Newtown, Pennsylvania) is an American feminist performance artist and the founding director of Franklin Furnace Archive art organization. Over decades she has developed and "created innovative photographic and vide ...

, founder of the

Franklin Furnace Archive Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. is an arts organization-in-residence at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Since its inception in 1976, Franklin Furnace has been identifying, presenting, archiving, and making avant-garde art available to the ...

. Dobkin was a frequent performer at Montreal's

Edgy Women The Edgy Women Festival (also referred to as Edgy Redux, Femmes Au-delà or Women from the Edge) was an annual festival of "short, highly physical works by women, often characterized by a transdisciplinary approach and politicized content." which ...

feminist performance festival between the years 2004 and 2010.

Major exhibitions

In 2006, Dobkin exhibited ''The Lactation Station'' in Toronto at

OCAD University Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD U, is a public university, public art school, art university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its main campus is located within Toronto's Grange Park (neighbourh ...

's Professional Gallery, curated by Paul Couillard of

FADO Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado ...

. In this exhibition, Dobkin invited audience members to sample human breast milk. The exhibition, which was partly funded by the

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study a ...

, gained widespread attention and prompted

Health Canada Health Canada (HC; )Health Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Health (). is the Structure of the Canadian federal government#Departments, with subsidiary units, department of the Gove ...

to issue a national warning against the online sale of human breast milk. It was remounted in 2012 as part of Montreal's OFFTA Festival in co-presentation with Studio 303 at Usine C. In 2009, Dobkin performed "Being Green," a video work in which she sings "

Bein' Green "Bein' Green" (also known as "It's Not Easy Bein' Green") is a song written by Joe Raposo, originally performed by Jim Henson as Kermit the Frog on both ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Muppet Show'' (in the episodes "Peter Ustinov" and "Peter Sellers ...

" while dressed as

Kermit the Frog Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created in 1955 and originally performed by Jim Henson. An anthropomorphic green frog, Kermit is the pragmatic everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably as the showrunner and host o ...

and being fisted by another actor dressed as

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, actor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notability as the creator of the Muppets. Henson was also well known for creating ''Fraggle Rock'' ( ...

. In 2015, Dobkin created ''How Many Performance Artists Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb (For Martha Wilson)'' and performed it at the

Enoch Turner School Enoch Turner Schoolhouse is a historic site and museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a former school owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust. The school was built in 1848 when it was known as the Ward School. The building is located at 106 Trini ...

as part of the

Images Festival The Images Festival is a yearly event devoted to independent and experimental film, video art, new media and media installation that takes place each spring in Toronto. History The Images festival was founded in 1987, originally conceived a ...

. The work was an ode to one of America’s foremost performance artists,

. Dobkin's work was inspired by Martha Wilson’s 2005 video titled ''A History of Performance Art According to Me'', which examined the history of performance art. It had multiple co-presenters, including the University of Toronto,

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

Performance Art Centre, and the

Toronto-Dominion Bank Toronto-Dominion Bank (), doing business as TD Bank Group (), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The bank was created on February 1, 1955, through the merger of the Bank of ...

. In 2021, the Art Gallery of York University presented Dobkin's first solo retrospective exhibition, ''Wetrospective'', curated by Emelie Chhangur. A book retrospective on Dobkin's work edited by Laura Levin, ''Jess Dobkin’s Wetrospective: Constellating performance archives,'' was published in 2024.

Works

* ''Jess Dobkin’s Wetrospective: Constellating Performance Archives'', 2024 * ''MONOMYTHS'', 2017 * ''The Magic Hour'', 2016 * ''The Artist-Run Newsstand'', 2015 - 2016 * ''How Many Performance Artists Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb (For

)'', 2015 * ''The Performance Art Army'', 2014 * ''Acting/Performing/Audience'', 2014 (co-directed with Shannon Cochrane) * ''Performance Artist for Hire'', 2013 * ''Free Childcare Provided'', 2013 * ''Affirmations for Artists'', 2012 * ''Bleeding at the Ball'', 2011 * ''Everything I've Got'', 2010 * ''Being Green'', 2009 * ''Mirror Ball'', 2008-2009 * ''Clown Car'', 2008 * ''The Lactation Station'', 2006-2012 * ''Fee for Service'', 2006 * ''Emergency Exits'', 2006 * ''Restored'', 2004 * ''Attending,'' 2003-2005 * ''The Two Boobs'', 2003 * ''Composite Body'', 2003 * ''The Mad Chef'', 2000-2003 * ''Six Degrees of Lesbian Nation'', 2003 * ''Magic Trick'', 2003 * ''An Ontario Bride Seeks American Wives'', 2003 * ''Talk to Me'', 2001

Personal life

Dobkin is

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

, and a mother.

References

External links

Official websiteJess Dobkin’s Social Mirror Ball – Dykes on Mykes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobkin, Jess 1970 births Living people Canadian performance artists Canadian women performance artists Canadian women artists Oberlin College alumni Rutgers University alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto Canadian lesbian artists 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Fisting subculture