erences physical and sexual abuse and the fact that when
didn’t find my work accessible in the 1960s and 70s, and
you touch a body, you open multiple paths that one could
they didn’t know what to do with it. Now they do. They’re
encounter. This led to my use of a stereoscope in Room of
not bothered by the date it was made and have a new ex-
One’s Own (1990-3), where you can actually control the
perience as a result. I made these things decades ago and
action based on what you look at. It actually incorporates
it seems that I had to wait for the Millennial generation to
the viewer’s eye into the artwork, making the viewer into
grow up, as they are the ones who understand these proj-
a voyeur. From that came America’s Finest (1993-4), an
ects. You deal with the time you’re living in, and the tools,
interactive rifle with a surveillance system that allowed
inventions, and opportunities of that time. As new tech-
you to see the past and the future simultaneously. The
nologies develop, we have to think of them in a utopian
action of pulling a trigger implicates the viewer in an ag-
way to enhance our stay on this planet, while remember-
gressive act being captured on camera. With the telero-
ing the potential for horror that is a possibility as well. You
botic dolls from The Dollie Clone series (1995-8), I was
have to maintain optimism, because that brings you to a
thinking about how, by using cameras in the dolls’ eyes,
form of belief that subverts the risks, danger, and fear.
the viewer could become a virtual cyborg as they look at
These projects take time and don’t happen overnight.
the dolls and control their movements.
They’re all authored by me and my team, and we don’t
In this way, my work has always been a dialogue and a
go out and buy software to use. Most times, in fact, the
conversation. I use the viewer as part of the piece. People
software does not exist; we create it. This combination of
Lynn Hershman Leeson. Above: Cabbage; Opposite: Strawberry Noir; From the Injectable Mutation series and Infinity Engine.
Following spread: Wallpaper, from The Infinity Engine, 2012-2013. Courtesy Bridget Donahue Gallery.
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