Lynn Hershman Leeson talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work.
Leeson, born in 1941 in Cleveland, Ohio, US, and now based in San Francisco, is one of the pioneers of media art. Over more than half a century, she has explored how people and society engage with, and are shaped by, technology—from surveillance and control, via scientific progress, to the formation and manipulation of identity.
Lynn Turning Herself Into Roberta. 1975. Directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson Courtesy Lynn Hershman Leeson
Her work has taken the form of sculptural installation, video, photography, sound, online art, performance, and much more. It moves fluidity across these disciplines and adopts disparate modes, from documentary to historical drama to science-fiction fantasy, in a language awash with art historical and cinematic allusion.
Conceiving Ada. 1997. USA. Directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson
Courtesy Strand Releasing
At the heart of her practice is a fundamental analysis of how humans can navigate political, social and environmental upheavals, and how technology in contemporary society can liberate and empower as much as oppress and censor.
Installation view of Logic Paralyzes the Heart at the 59th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale 2022
Photo: Andrea Rossetti
She discusses the epiphany provoked by a photocopier malfunction that prompted her lifelong interest in humans’ engagement with technology, how she felt forced to look beyond conventional spaces when a museum rejected her multimedia Breathing Machines, the early influence of Cézannes she encountered in the Cleveland Museum of Art, the conversations with women artists that led to the Women Art Revolution film and archive, her film with the Cuban artist-activist Tania Bruguera, and a transformative encounter with the theatre of Tadeusz Kantor.
!Women Art Revolution (2010). Directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson
Courtesy Zeitgeist Films
Plus, she answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?
- Lynn Hershman Leeson: Are Our Eyes Targets?, Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf, Germany, until 2 February 2025; Lynn Hershman: Moving-Image Innovator, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 7-20 June
This podcast is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects, the arts and culture app.
The free app offers access to a vast range of international cultural organisations through a single download, with new guides being added regularly. They include numerous US museums and galleries that have held solo exhibitions of Lynn Hershman Leeson’s work over the years, from the Museum of Modern Art and The Kitchen in New York to the Contemporary Arts Center (or CAC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. If you download Bloomberg Connects you will find that the guide to the CAC—which describes itself as “a lab for understanding ourselves, others and the world around us through creating and experiencing all forms of contemporary art”—includes details about Zaha Hadid’s building, and information on the CAC’s current shows. It features in-depth audio commentary on After (Work) Hours, an exhibition that recognises that many artists are or have been museum workers, and features contributions by more than 50 artists who have been employed by the museum since 2003.