LISA ROSS
Much like her sexuality, being an artist was not a choice for Lisa Ross. “I´d never try to change either one as each has given me a life beyond my wildest dreams,” says the acclaimed artist. Ross´s photographic and video works have explored manifestations of faith, and her 2013 exhibition and book, Living Shrines of Uyghur China, was the culmination of 10 years traveling to the turbulent Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region to visit Sufi pilgrimage sites in and around the Taklamakan desert. Rather than focusing on politics, in this conflicted area, Ross chose to follow sacred routes and focus on the shrines she found in the desert marked by colorful clothes, wooden cribs and rafts. The exhibition opened at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, and was reviewed in top publications, including Artforum, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Of the accompanying book, The New York Review of Books wrote, “Looking at these bright, luminous images, we begin to sense something inexpressible but more profound than any of the region´s difficult politics-a glimpse at the intangible traditions and beliefs that have given shape to Xinjiang´s Muslims over many centuries.” Currently an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design, Ross began teaching in 1989 in what she calls her “dream job,” a position she created instructing photography to LGBT youth at the Harvey Milk High School and Hetrick-Martin Institute. “The greatest job one could ever have!” she says. -SJ
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