Hershman Leeson asks, “Where does performance begin and ordinary life give way? Or is all of life a performance?” Here Hershman Leeson chronicles the artist’s life as she speaks into the camera about trauma, anxieties, and obsessions. The story that unfolds over the course of the four-part work is an honest, intimate view into Hershman Leeson’s experiences. Yet the film also demonstrates the gap between the artist’s real and virtual selves, and her struggle with authenticity as she tapes her innermost thoughts. Sometimes she cuts, multiplies, and mirrors her own image, documenting the struggle to articulate her identity in a video meant to be broadcast to the public.

Gallery label from

2019

Medium Video (color, sound)
Duration 76 min.
Credit The Modern Women's Fund
Object number 573.2012
Department Media and Performance

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Lynn Hershman Leeson

Lynn Hershman Leeson

American, born 1941 45 works online

Surveying Lynn Hershman Leeson’s long and relentlessly innovative career, it would be tempting to ascribe to the artist some uncanny power of technological foresight.

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