Rhonda Roland Shearer: Difference between revisions

 

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{{Short description|American sculptor and journalist}}

{{Short description|American sculptor and }}

{{Infobox person

{{Infobox person

| name = Rhonda Roland Shearer

| name = Rhonda Roland Shearer

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<br />{{URL|http://toutfait.com}}<br /> {{URL|http://imediaethics.org/}}

<br />{{URL|http://toutfait.com}}<br /> {{URL|http://imediaethics.org/}}

}}

}}

{{Short description|Dutch media theorist and critic of digital culture (born 1959)}}

”’Rhonda Roland Shearer”’ is an American sculptor, art historian, and journalist noted for emergency relief work following the [[September 11 attacks]] and during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]].<ref name=”WNYC-PatronSaint”>{{Cite web |title=Community Well-Being: The ‘Patron Saint of PPE’ {{!}} The Brian Lehrer Show |url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/community-well-being-patron-saint-ppe/ |access-date=2024-02-13 |website=WNYC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Widdicombe|first=Lizzie|date=2007-11-12|title=A Firefighter’s Theorem|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/11/12/a-firefighter’s-theorem|magazine=The New Yorker|volume=83|issue=35|pages=30–31}}</ref> ”[[Forbes]]” has described her as an expert on [[Dada|Dadaist art]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0411/062.html|title=Eliot Spitzer, Meet Rhonda Shearer|last=Smillie|first=Dirk|date=2005-04-11|work=Forbes|access-date=2017-08-04|language=en}}</ref> In 1998, Shearer co-founded the Art Science Research Laboratory (ASRL) with evolutionary theorist [[Stephen Jay Gould]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Conversation With: Stephen Jay Gould |url=https://asrlab.org/pressreprints/a-conversation-with-stephen-jay-gould/ |access-date=2020-05-11 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>[http://www.asrlab.org Art Science Research Laboratory], homepage</ref><ref>[http://www.imediaethics.org/Bio/10/Rhonda.php iMediaEthics minibio of Rhonda Roland Shearer]</ref> As a sculptor, she has exhibited in [[New York City]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vogel |first=Carol |date=2010-11-25 |title=The Public Warhol in a Public Square |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/arts/design/26vogel.html |access-date=2024-02-04 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> [[Los Angeles]], and [[London]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rhonda Roland Shearer – Still Life No. 8 |url=https://www.capsuleauctions.com/auction/lots/rhonda_roland_shearer_still_life_no_8_se-2021_7139 |access-date=2024-02-04 |website=Capsule Auctions}}</ref> as well as other U.S. cities.

”’Rhonda Roland Shearer”’ is an American sculptor, art historian, and journalist noted for emergency relief work following the [[September 11 attacks]] and during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]].<ref name=”WNYC-PatronSaint”>{{Cite web |title=Community Well-Being: The ‘Patron Saint of PPE’ {{!}} The Brian Lehrer Show |url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/community-well-being-patron-saint-ppe/ |access-date=2024-02-13 |website=WNYC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Widdicombe|first=Lizzie|date=2007-11-12|title=A Firefighter’s Theorem|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/11/12/a-firefighter’s-theorem|magazine=The New Yorker|volume=83|issue=35|pages=30–31}}</ref> ”[[Forbes]]” has described her as an expert on [[Dada|Dadaist art]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0411/062.html|title=Eliot Spitzer, Meet Rhonda Shearer|last=Smillie|first=Dirk|date=2005-04-11|work=Forbes|access-date=2017-08-04|language=en}}</ref> In 1998, Shearer co-founded the Art Science Research Laboratory (ASRL) with evolutionary theorist [[Stephen Jay Gould]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Conversation With: Stephen Jay Gould |url=https://asrlab.org/pressreprints/a-conversation-with-stephen-jay-gould/ |access-date=2020-05-11 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>[http://www.asrlab.org Art Science Research Laboratory], homepage</ref><ref>[http://www.imediaethics.org/Bio/10/Rhonda.php iMediaEthics minibio of Rhonda Roland Shearer]</ref> As a sculptor, she has exhibited in [[New York City]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vogel |first=Carol |date=2010-11-25 |title=The Public Warhol in a Public Square |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/arts/design/26vogel.html |access-date=2024-02-04 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> [[Los Angeles]], and [[London]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rhonda Roland Shearer – Still Life No. 8 |url=https://www.capsuleauctions.com/auction/lots/rhonda_roland_shearer_still_life_no_8_se-2021_7139 |access-date=2024-02-04 |website=Capsule Auctions}}</ref> as well as other U.S. cities.

American sculptor and entrepreneur

Rhonda Roland Shearer is an American sculptor, art historian, and journalist noted for emergency relief work following the September 11 attacks and during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[1][2] Forbes has described her as an expert on Dadaist art.^[3] In 1998, Shearer co-founded the Art Science Research Laboratory (ASRL) with evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould.^[4][5][6] As a sculptor, she has exhibited in New York City,^[7] Los Angeles, and London,^[8] as well as other U.S. cities.

Shearer is the director of ASRL, a nonprofit based in SoHo, Manhattan.^[9] The organization maintains what The New York Times described as the largest private collection of historical objects and reference materials related to Marcel Duchamp available to the public.^[10] These resources supported work by Shearer and Gould^[11] concerning Duchamp’s readymades, including the view that his found objects, so-called, were optical experiments only later executed as replicas under Duchamp’s supervision.^[12] See also Shearer’s paper: “Marcel Duchamp’s Impossible Bed and Other ‘Not’ Readymade Objects.”^[13]

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, Shearer and her daughter London Allen organized the distribution of supplies to personnel working at the World Trade Center site. Shearer converted ASRL’s ~3,000 sq ft residential loft and art studio, located about one mile from the World Trade Center, into a supply hub where volunteers distributed gloves, respirators, hard hats, boots, clothing, tools, and other items.^{[14][15][16][17]} According to The New York Times, NYPD Lt. John Moran said, “A lot of this stuff, Rhonda is responsible for,” referring to respirators, flashlights, tools, and winter clothing at a supply station near the site.^[14] Shearer told The Washington Post she borrowed about $1 million to finance the operation, later repaid with donations from foundations and individuals.^[18]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shearer founded Cut Red Tape 4 Heroes to distribute personal protective equipment (PPE)—including masks, gloves, sanitizing supplies, and hazmat suits—to hospital staff, firefighters, organizations serving people with special needs, and low-income communities. Hospitals often restricted on-site donations; distribution was conducted nearby.^[19] By May 2020, Shearer had borrowed more than $600,000 against property to fund the effort and sought additional crowdfunding.^[18][20] Public statements from officials noted the distributions; some coverage referred to Shearer as the “patron saint of PPE.”^[21][1][22]

In 2023, a RAND Corporation report noted Shearer’s B Corporation Ample Financial for the creation of options contracts to promote supply chain resilience during surge capacity, as in the case of a 700% markup for PPE during COVID-19. ^[23] Shearer explained in an interview on WNYC‘s Brian Lehrer Show that she used her knowledge from front line work post 9/11 and the contacts she amassed to acquire PPE at notably low prices.^[24]

Under ASRL’s umbrella, Shearer has overseen digital publishing with a media-ethics focus, including iMediaEthics.org (formerly StinkyJournalism.org). The stated aim is to apply the scientific method to media critique. StinkyJournalism.org drew attention for reporting on the 2007 “Monster Pig” case, which raised questions about the authenticity of photographs from a canned hunt in Alabama. Subsequent coverage included reporting on a grand jury inquiry related to the incident.^{[25][26][27][28][29]}

Shearer won the 2012 Mirror Award for Best Single Article in the Digital Media category as publisher of IMediaEthics.org, with Malik Ayub Sumbal on the murder of Benazir Bhutto in “Mrs. Bhutto’s Murder Anniversary Part 1: Troubling Double Standard, American photojournalism’s different treatment of foreign victims.”^[30]

Prior to the 2001 relief work and the 2020 PPE project, Shearer participated in the early development of Housing Works, an AIDS-service organization founded in 1991. She proposed using upscale thrift stores as a revenue source and, with then-husband H. Joseph Allen, contributed $100,000 in seed funding to launch the concept.^[31][32][33]

Shearer’s sculpture has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, London, and other U.S. cities.^[34][35] Her installation Woman’s Work scaled domestic labor to the public monument.^[36][37]

Shearer presented “The Flatland Hypothesis: A New Look At Revolutions In Art And Science” at Benoit Mandelbrot’s festschrift in Curaçao, celebrating Benoit Mandelbrot‘s 70th birthday and his discovery of fractal geometry.^{[38][39][40][41]} In 1996, she exhibited Shapes Of Nature, 10 Years Of Bronze Sculptures in The New York Botanical Garden, which experimented in the use of fractals as a new way to look at space and form. Whereas many mathematicians like Mandelbrot understood fractals in the form of computerized models of equations, others like Nathaniel Friedman and Shearer recognized that fractals are also found in nature. The Economist quoted her as saying, “For the artists, nothing is more fundamental.”^[42][43]

Always fascinated by the intersection between science and art, Shearer exhibited Pangea—inspired by chaos theory—in New York and Los Angeles from 1990 to 1991.

Shearer has held several research appointments, including as Principal Investigator and developer for NASA Astrobiology Magazine (2005–2019) and as a visiting fellow in the Harvard department of Psychology.^[44]

Shearer has two children, London and Jade.^[11] Following Gould’s death, she had a relationship with Ronald Spadafora until his death in 2018; Spadafora led FDNY recovery efforts after 9/11, and his death from cancer was attributed to exposure at the site.^[45]