Lynn Hershman Leeson | The earliest generation of new media pioneer female artists
theFOUND Virtual Art Center this TALK with Lynn Hershman Leeson, an American artist Lynn Hershman Leeson (b.1941-), has practiced art for more than 50 years, and is internationally renowned for his works of art and films. As a member of the earliest generation of new media pioneer artists, her innovation is widely recognized. Her works have been exploring social issues: the relationship between people and technology, personal identity, monitoring mechanism, and using the media as a tool to resist censorship and political repression. In the past 50 years, she has made pioneering contributions in the fields of photography, film, performance, installation, interactive and online media art.
Lynn Hershman Leeson's works have the following themes: Identity in the era of consumption, privacy in the era of surveillance, human-computer interaction and the relationship between the real world and the virtual world. Her works originated from the installation art and performance tradition, focusing on interactivity. Her project explores technologies in digital media and science. She is the first artist to use videodisc to distribute interactive works (videodisc is the predecessor of DVD), which is Lorna (1983 – 84); He is also the first artist to incorporate the touch screen interface into his works (deep contact, 1984 – 1989); Since 1995, she has started to create network robot art installations. In the past 50 years, these issues she touched to have been regarded as critical to the operation of society: the relationship between people and technology, identity, monitoring and how the media can be used as an empowerment tool for censorship and anti censorship, political repression and anti repression.
Lynn Hershman Leeson is the winner of the SIGGRAPH Lifetime Achievement Award (2009). She has also won the Excellence Award (2020) and the ginica Award (1999) of the Electronic Arts Award, as well as the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fund. In 2017, she won the American artist scholarship, the "lasting vision" award of the San Francisco Film Association, the lifetime achievement award of the University Art Association, and the special nominated winner of the 59th Venice Biennale.
Her five films, strange culture, man-made man, gestating ADA, female art revolution: Secret History and Tania Libre, have been released worldwide and have participated in Sundance Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival. She won the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award as a screenwriter and director of man-made. "Women's Art Revolution: Secret History" is also honored in the art film festival.
Her works have been exhibited in more than 200 large-scale exhibitions around the world and collected by many art institutions, including the Museum of modern art in New York, the Tate Museum of modern art in London, the lembrook Museum in Duisburg, the Museum of contemporary art in Los Angeles, the National Gallery in Ottawa, Canada, the wark Art Center in Minneapolis, the Whitworth Art Museum in Manchester, and the ZKM | art and media center in Karlsruhe, Berkeley Art Museum, etc.
theFOUND & Lynn Hershman Leeson
Q1:
Through different digital media, you focus your works on the relationship between people and technology. Where do you find the inspiration for your research and creation?
I have always made things, I WANTED TO USE THE TOOLS OF MY TIME TO TELL THE STORY OF MY TIME.
Q2:
You have a double degree in art and biology. As the first group of multi-disciplinary pioneer artists, you have produced great influence and leading significance. Looking back on your 50 years of art history, how do you evaluate yourself?
I DO NOT THINK MY WORK WAS PRESCIENT, I WAS USING THE TOOLS THAT WERE IN THE ENVIRONMENT TO DEAL WITH THE CURRENT SITUATION WE ARE FACING.
Q3:
As one of the artists participating in the 59th Venice Biennale, the theme of this exhibition "milk of dreams" comes from the world conceived by the surrealist artist Leonarda Carrington. What impressed you most about this exhibition?
WHAT IMPRESSED ME IS HOW MANY UNKNOWN WOMEN WERE FINALLY REPRESENTED, LIKE ME, SHOWING FOR THE FIRST TIME.
Q4:
How do you think the theme of this exhibition - "surrealism" and "ecologism" reflect the power of women?
WOMEN DONOT NEED TO BE SEPARATED INTO THEMES, THEY SHOULD BE JUDGED ON THE MERIT OF THEIR WORK. THEMES REDUCE THE IMPACT AND CONTINUE MARGINALIZATION.
Q5:
You are not only in the field of digital art, but also an excellent filmmaker. Of the 26 films you directed, "! Women Art Revolution" is the most famous. This documentary has improved the status of female artists in society to various degrees. What do you think female artists need to be encouraged and supported most?
THEY NEED TO BE COLLECTED VALUED, ENTER MUSEUMS AND PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS, NOT AS FEMALES BUT AS IMPORTANT THINKERS.
Q6:
Although "milk of dreams" is not an exhibition about the epidemic, as curator Cecilia Alemani said, it inevitably records the turbulence in the epidemic era. In this exhibition, art and artists can help us imagine a new coexistence model. In the post epidemic era, new changes have taken place in the relationship between the real world and the virtual world, and the relationship between technology and people has undergone a "qualitative mutation". How do you view the post epidemic era?
TIME BECAME AN ADVANTAGE IN THIS CASE, IT ALLOWED DEEP CONSIDERATION OF WHAT WAS BEING PRESENTED WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN OTHERWISE LACKING.
Q7:
At the present stage, there is a great contradiction between optimism and pessimism in the automation of technology and artificial intelligence. What attitude do you think humans need to face the current rapid development of science and technology?
HUMANS NEED TO FACE CLIMATE CHANGE AND SURVIVAL ISSUES AND USE TECHNOLOGIES TO HELP SOLVE THEM.
