Upcoming exhibitions: Lorna by Lynn Hershman Leeson

Lynn Hershman Leeson, Lorna, 1979-84, interactive DVD installation with living room props

Lorna was the first interactive video artwork, inviting viewers to play the persona of a middle-aged woman at life’s crossroads—and to decide her fate. Created by pioneering cyberfeminist artist Lynn Hershman Leeson between 1979–1984, the Lorna installation ambitiously evolved the role of the viewer into an active participant in art, foreseeing virtual reality and female video game characters by a decade. Using a remote control, viewers sit on Lorna’s furniture and choose her ending: should she shoot her TV, or move to Los Angeles and start a new life? Thirty-six paths branch out from Lorna’s small apartment to a mass-media saturated world.

Judy Chicago, Women and Smoke, 1971-72, single-channel digital video transferred from 16mm film

Also showing: Judy Chicago’s film Women and Smoke, California, 1971-72. Judy Chicago (b. 1939) is a groundbreaking American feminist artist with roots in West Coast minimalism and performance art. Her classic film Women and Smoke, California, made between 1971-72, documents site-specific performances around California involving the use of fireworks. Chicago used colored smokes to make temporary paintings in the air, pushing the boundaries of color off the canvas. “It softened everything,” the artist said. “There was a moment when the smoke began to clear, but a haze lingered. And the whole world was feminized—if only for a moment.”