Constantina Zavitsanos

Constantina Zavitsanos is a conceptual feminist artist.^[1] Her works are organized around themes of planning, contingency, debt, dependency and care.^[2] Zavitsanos is a part of disability community as a care provider and recipient. She lives in New York City and teaches at The New School. She is a recipient of the 2015 Wynn Newhouse Awards presented to disabled artists.^[3] She was a plaintiff in a class action lawsuit brought against the New York Police Department for wrongful arrest during the 2004 GOP convention in New York. New York City settled the case in 2015. Zavitsanos has incorporated her settlement into the art work "Sweepstakes" at the New Museum where viewers are given a portion of the settlement on a daily basis.^[4]

Notable works

• It was what I wanted now was nearly invisible (2013) is a stack of papers next to a wall. Four- and five-digit-long numbers are printed on the paper tracking Zavitsanos’ projected student loan debt over the next 25 years and the minimum income necessary to make monthly loan payments. Corinna Kirsch of ArtFCity has described the work as a strong statement with limited means. As Kirsch put it, "if a loan officer handed me thousands of pages showing my future indebtedness, I might’ve rethought signing away my future."^[5]

References