As I approach a pedestal, a mysterious voice says: ‘You think you’re so clever. I see you.’ Atop the plinth is a wax cast of the artist Lynn Hershman Leeson’s face, replete with a glass eye and synthetic hair. This whispering work, Paranoid (1968–2022), from the series ‘Breathing Machines’ (1965–2022), establishes the visitor as both astute observer and voyeur. Nearby, a corridor is lined with a number of black and white photocollages of women’s body parts combined with machines (from the series ‘Phantom Limb’, 1985–90); at the end, a doll sits in a vitrine, seemingly looking in my direction (CybeRoberta, 1996). Only upon nearing the doll do I realize it is actually surveilling me: her eyes have been replaced with cameras, the livestream footage from which plays on a tiny TV and is also available to view via a corresponding website…
The Art Newspaper