Lynn Hershman Leeson : her name is an “anti-body”
林恩·赫舍曼·利森：她的名字是一剂抗体
In The Art Newspaper China’s “Art & Tech” column, Lu Chen interviews pioneering media artist Lynn Hershman Leeson. From early interactive works to AI, DNA storage, and the installation Infinity Engine, her practice probes identity, surveillance, and biotechnology—while insisting on optimism amid invisible risks.
Editor’s note
编辑说明
This article situates Lynn Hershman Leeson as a pioneer whose work repeatedly precedes later technological realities, rather than framing her through contemporary hype. The interview prioritizes concrete artworks, exhibitions, and technical details to ground abstract discussions of identity, AI, and biotechnology. Rather than adopting a dystopian or celebratory tone, the piece maintains a critical but optimistic stance toward technology and human agency.
Key questions
核心问题
- How does her early work anticipate today’s questions of virtual identity and self-construction?
- What happens when biotech becomes both medium and subject—DNA storage, antibodies, and profit-driven R&D?
- How does art turn surveillance and “voyeurism” into a two-way system—and what risks remain invisible?
Selected excerpts
节选
As one of the earliest and most influential media artists, Lynn Hershman Leeson has been exceptionally busy of late. Over the past four months, her solo exhibition Lynn Hershman Leeson: Anti-Bodies opened at Berlin’s KW Institute for Contemporary Art, where she also unveiled a new commissioned work, the Novalis Hotel, installed in KW’s public space at the Novalis Hotel—an expansion based on her iconic installation the Dante Hotel. In addition, she presented Lynn Hershman Leeson: First Person Plural at Basel’s House of Electronic Arts (HeK). At the same time, solo presentations of her work took place at ShanghART’s space in Singapore, Waldburger Wouters in Brussels, and Anglim Gilbert Gallery in San Francisco.
“As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been an artist.” Although trained with dual degrees in art and biology, Leeson insisted in her interview with The Art Newspaper China that, between the two, her identity as an artist comes first. With a mother who was a biologist and a family deeply rooted in the sciences, she loved making things with her hands from childhood. Over time, she fused her interest in science with artistic practice—an enduring core of her work as a 77-year-old artist—and went on to create many “firsts.”
What this demonstrates
它能证明什么
- Ability to report at the intersection of art, technology, and gender politics—grounded in specific works, mechanisms, and institutions.
- Skill in translating technical concepts (AI agents, DNA as storage, biotech antibodies) into readable cultural narratives without hype.
- Editorial judgment to frame a “pioneer” story with evidence: building a clear arc from biography → key works → contemporary stakes and risks.