Lynn Hershman Leeson

A Lynn Hershman Leeson Sculpture at the Armory Show Takes Your Picture and Tweets It for You

Category

Exhibition Review

Date

Mar 2, 2017

Source

Art News

Author

Alex Greenberger

Excerpt

Tucked away at the back of Vilma Gold gallery’s Armory Show booth is a sculpture that tweets your picture, so you don’t have to do it yourself: Lynn Hershman Leeson’s HYBRID MUTANT #2 (1966–2017). The pictures wind up on the Twitter @batofaneyebot, which is supposedly controlled by a user named Icu Cme.

The sculpture is one of Hershman Leeson’s early works. Made during the 1960s, it similar to a group of works known as the “Breathing Machines,” wax casts of the artist’s face that appear to breathe or speak, thanks to hidden speakers. This work has a butterfly pinned to it and rests on a purple cloth.

Affixed to the pedestal for the work is a camera that captures visitors’ images and posts them online. It’s not always accurate—on Twitter, you’ll see a lot of photos of the ceiling that the piece took—but it does manage to surprise. Among the many tweets the sculpture has posted is one of the artist herself.

Related Texts & Reviews