Posted on
2018-06-04
This exhibition will showcase Lynn Hershman ’s representative and critical series of works of Roberta Breitmore in 1973-1978. The works examine the relationship between individuals’ “real” and “virtual” identities – a topic that is still very much relevant in this day and age of consumerism; when issues such as Facebook’s data breach and mass surveillance in everyday life forces us to reevaluate the balance between privacy, security, and convenience; and an environment where technology is increasingly intertwined with our lives.
The fictional persona, Roberta Breitmore was first played by the artist herself, and during the fourth year of the performance, Roberta Breitmore multiplied into three other people appearing in her guise. The creation of Roberta Breitmore is the existence of “another self”, or Lynn Hershman’s alter ego, consisting not only of the appearance transformation through makeup, wigs and dressing which occupied all the role-playing, but a full-fledged, socially constructed identity in the real world and over a period of time, with authentic and reliable evidence: from a driver’s license and credit card to letters from her psychiatrist. The accumulation and reproduction of these fictional traces is an awakening process to the artist’s self-awareness and identity. As she notes, “Although I denied it at the time and insisted that she was ‘her own woman’ with defined needs, ambitions and instincts, in retrospect we were linked.
Opposite – Roberta’s Construction Chart #2, 1975
Exhibition runs through to August 16th, 2018
ShanghART
9 Lock Road, #02-22, Gillman Barracks
108937 Singapore
Singapore
www.shanghartgallery.com