Portrait of the artist as a chameleon

(Seduction of a Cyborg)

Two years ago, the Waldburger gallery presented a fine exhibition of work by Lynn Hershman Leeson. From 1973 to 1978, for her Roberta Breitmore project, the US artist, who could be described as a less famous version of Cindy Sherman, got inside the skin of a character of that name, whom she had invented right down to the smallest details. She even gave Breitmore her own handwriting, as well as all sorts of official documents, such as a driving licence and cheques. That tension between fiction and reality, created by taking on a persona, recurs frequently in Hershman Leeson’s work, which also looks at how female identity is a construction imposed by society. Her 1986 video Confessions of a Chameleon, now on show in the gallery, can also be seen in that context. In it, Hershman Leeson talks at length about her private life, her traumas, her past as a call girl, and her ultimate vocation as an artist. But the mysterious smile playing around her mouth makes you wonder constantly whether this “confessional video” is authentic or is as fictional as her Roberta Breitmore character. The video makes use of the split-screen technique and of multiple screens, so that her image appears dozens of times in a visual rendering of her many personalities. “I always tell the truth,” she says with a psychotic laugh, which doesn’t exactly clarify things. Seduction of a Cyborg (1994) continues her investigation of identity and persona, but with a futuristic flavour. A woman goes for treatment because she has a problem with her sight; gradually, technology leads to her becoming addicted to a constant stream of images. The video now looks a bit dated, but it remains of historic interest in a medium that is changing so rapidly. And its message has become all the more relevant.

LYNN HERSHMAN LEESON: VIDEO WORKS > 8/2, do/je/Th & vr/ve/Fr 14 > 19.00, za/sa/Sa 12 > 17.00, Galerie Waldburger, chaussée de Waterloosesteenweg 4, Sint-Gillis/Saint-Gilles, 0498-49.50.86, www.galeriewaldburger.com