Lynn Hershman Leeson

Self Portrait as Another Person

1965

Self Portrait as Another Person features the artist’s face cast in wax above a sensor-activated audiotape playing the sound of her breathing and speaking, uttering statements such as “Tell me what you’re afraid of … Who are you? Not just your name…”. The tape was recorded while Hershman Leeson was hospitalized due to cardiomyopathy/heart complications from pregnancy.

Breathing Machine - 1967

Self Portrait as Another Person, 1968, wax, wig, makeup, tape recorder, plexiglass, wood, sensor, sound, 50.8 × 40 × 7.9 cm