Meet Zoe Ligon, the Sex Educator Calling Out MOCAD’s Controversial “New Portraits” Exhibit
Detroit-based sex educator Zoe Ligon is outraged that her photo appeared in Richard Prince’s new show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
What role does morality play in the blurred lines of fair use and public domain?
In August 2018, Zoe Ligon, a Detroit-based sex educator and CEO of an online sex toy shop, posted a revealing image to her Instagram account.
The caption called attention to “laws that are put in place to criminalize harm reduction efforts toward sex workers,” she tells CultureShift’s Ryan Patrick Hooper.
It’s a narrative that threads Ligon’s social media identity – one she describes as a transparent space for educating and having “ difficult but frank conversations about intimacy, relationships, and pleasure.”
Last month, she discovered that same photo tweeted out by controversial artist Richard Prince, referencing his latest show, “New Portraits” currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD).
Prince is known for taking images from social platforms without consent, blowing them up to reveal a large canvas and curating an art show. In 2014, his “Portraits” debut exhibition in New York led to five lawsuits after some featured subjects objected to their photos being used without their consent.
Just as such, Ligon felt “violated” for her likeness being used without her authorization, and called out Prince and MOCAD regarding not only her photo, but the exhibit as a whole, requesting that the full exhibition be taken down.
“My upset isn’t over my image being used,” she says. “The issue is that there’s this intent to have a ‘conversation’ about the intersection of technology and feminism, when in reality it’s exploiting young women.”
Click on the player above to hear Ligon’s full conversation about “appropriative art” and read her comments below.
Post Written by LaToya Cross
Interview and audio by Ryan Patrick Hooper
