Laurie Anderson:
O Superman
I find Laurie Anderson's work very nuanced as well as important for many different reasons. Through performance, Anderson can address a broad range of issues, personal or political. In her performances, she incorporates singing, dancing, props, and music that strech the limits of their uses. Her piece, "O Superman" was one that stood out to me because the song echoes in my head after seeing it and leaves me with a strange feeling - one of longing or questioning. She talks about "mom and dad" as well as justice and force. Her personal style attributes to her lyrics and overall it's mesmerizing and strange - what art should be. She is one of my favorite performance artists because of she expresses herself in a totally unique way and underlines either personal or broad issues not by throwing them in your face, but by hinting at them or using humor.
Lynn Hershman Leeson:
Deep Contact
Lynn Hershman is one of the first female artists to stand up for women artists. Additionally, her work foresaw the current landscape of technology and how it is affecting society. Her work, Deep Contact, is essentially an artistic rendition of what online porn is today. It is an interactive piece that requires participants to "touch" the woman on the screen in front of them, testing the boundaries of woman vs. machine. Her work highlights the idea that it is not only woman that are sometimes fetishized and obsessed over, but technology as well. Granted, her work was created in the late 1980's, therefore she foresaw the idea of the widespread obsession of online porn that continues today.
