0:00:23.800,0:00:28.679
♪  ♪

0:00:39.813,0:00:43.683
In the mid 1970s, maybe a little earlier,

0:00:43.683,0:00:47.634
I had done a sculptural[br]painting of a man,

0:00:47.634,0:00:51.690
and a collector went to[br]a gallery and bought the work.

0:00:51.690,0:00:54.570
♪  ♪

0:00:54.570,0:00:55.855
I wanted to meet him,

0:00:55.855,0:00:57.549
but the gallery didn't[br]want me to meet him

0:00:57.549,0:01:00.129
'cause Lynn could[br]be either male or female.

0:01:01.379,0:01:03.486
Somehow, he found out[br]I was female

0:01:03.486,0:01:06.469
and he returned the work[br]because he said that women

0:01:06.469,0:01:08.130
weren't good investments.

0:01:08.130,0:01:10.332
Women artists[br]didn't make a good investment.

0:01:10.852,0:01:13.574
Um, he was wrong.[br][laughs]

0:01:14.154,0:01:18.209
[calm electronic music]

0:01:21.360,0:01:25.793
I did start out doing[br]painting and drawing.

0:01:26.700,0:01:29.557
And then moved into sculpture.

0:01:29.557,0:01:30.952
Then sculpture with sound.

0:01:30.952,0:01:34.031
- ...Trying to remember[br]who we are.

0:01:35.000,0:01:36.114
Video,

0:01:37.320,0:01:38.759
film,

0:01:39.414,0:01:40.983
artificial intelligence,

0:01:42.060,0:01:44.668
and computer-based work.

0:01:47.220,0:01:48.804
To me, they're all the same.

0:01:48.804,0:01:52.531
You know, you take a number of[br]things and put them together.

0:01:53.237,0:01:54.289
♪  ♪

0:01:56.759,0:02:01.143
I do work that confronts where we are in society.

0:02:01.143,0:02:02.308
[sculpture whirs]

0:02:04.371,0:02:05.642
I came to the Bay Area

0:02:05.642,0:02:07.771
to go to graduate school[br]at Berkeley.

0:02:07.771,0:02:09.720
[rock 'n' roll music]

0:02:09.871,0:02:15.188
It was the era of the hippies, Allen Ginsberg, and that

0:02:15.188,0:02:17.323
kind of radical thought.

0:02:19.440,0:02:25.920
And being a girl from Orthodox Jewish family in Cleveland,

0:02:26.046,0:02:28.576
it was just really[br]opening your mind

0:02:28.576,0:02:31.146
to the fact that you don't[br]have to do what you're told.

0:02:31.348,0:02:34.036
[calm jazz music]

0:02:34.860,0:02:37.718
I think that[br]the early challenges

0:02:37.718,0:02:40.000
were getting[br]somebody to show my work.

0:02:40.882,0:02:45.206
I remember walking the streets of Berkeley during that time,

0:02:45.735,0:02:49.734
and I thought, "Well, who needs[br]a museum to tell you whether you're doing art?"

0:02:50.515,0:02:53.257
So with my friend Eleanor Coppola,

0:02:53.257,0:02:56.156
we opened up rooms in a hotel,

0:02:56.156,0:02:59.025
and people could check-in at the desk, get a key

0:03:01.042,0:03:04.886
Eleanor staged in her room[br]a man who lived there.

0:03:04.886,0:03:08.040
I created fictional characters[br]who might've lived there,

0:03:08.216,0:03:12.959
and bought props from around that[br]neighborhood to redefine who those

0:03:12.959,0:03:15.000
characters could have been.

0:03:15.555,0:03:19.230
And it was a way of creating art[br]in the world

0:03:19.810,0:03:23.159
that went beyond the walls that[br]existed

0:03:23.940,0:03:26.747
It lasted nearly a year,

0:03:26.747,0:03:29.569
and finally somebody,[br]went at two in the morning.

0:03:29.569,0:03:31.620
And I had wax body parts[br]in there,

0:03:31.620,0:03:35.623
and people thought that it could have [br]been a murder, and called the police.

0:03:35.623,0:03:37.371
The police came in[br]and took everything.

0:03:37.976,0:03:39.097
And that was the end of that.

0:03:46.081,0:03:48.717
Glasses from the '70s.

0:03:50.840,0:03:53.891
- [laughs][br]- Big lenses.

0:03:57.120,0:03:58.686
- Here we go.

0:03:58.787,0:04:00.828
When I was in the room[br]at the Dante Hotel,

0:04:01.282,0:04:04.404
I had artifacts of somebody who[br]could have lived there

0:04:05.260,0:04:07.193
I thought,[br]Well, what if this woman,

0:04:07.193,0:04:09.706
this fictional character,[br]could be liberated,

0:04:09.706,0:04:12.021
live in real time[br]and real space?

0:04:12.223,0:04:15.369
And that was the beginning[br]of creating Roberta Breitmore.

0:04:17.637,0:04:20.639
So I would go out[br]and dress as Roberta,

0:04:20.639,0:04:23.627
with different kinds of makeup as a[br]blonde

0:04:24.660,0:04:29.492
and with a lot of things about her that[br]were very different from myself

0:04:29.794,0:04:31.794
[ambient music]

0:04:33.080,0:04:37.849
Roberta did things broke that any single broke woman would do.

0:04:37.849,0:04:41.281
And she came to San Francisco,[br]she needed a roommate to afford her rent,

0:04:41.281,0:04:43.738
so she put[br]ads in the local newspapers.

0:04:44.166,0:04:45.668
♪  ♪

0:04:48.320,0:04:50.178
Roberta went to a psychiatrist.

0:04:50.178,0:04:53.328
She had a particular walk.[br]She had particular gestures.

0:04:53.328,0:04:54.860
She had a language.

0:04:56.954,0:04:59.832
Roberta was able to get a bank account.

0:04:59.832,0:05:01.167
♪  ♪

0:05:01.167,0:05:03.960
She was able to get credit[br]cards, which I couldn't.

0:05:03.960,0:05:07.139
♪  ♪

0:05:07.139,0:05:12.130
She was much more real, had more of [br]a verifiable history than I did.

0:05:12.256,0:05:14.476
♪  ♪

0:05:16.064,0:05:20.325
I didn't think that Roberta would be a [br]long-term performance.

0:05:20.325,0:05:23.507
I don't even think performance[br]was a word in those days.

0:05:23.507,0:05:24.673
I don't know what she was.

0:05:24.673,0:05:27.390
She was an intervention[br]in real life, in society.

0:05:28.560,0:05:34.648
And she lasted almost ten years, [br]from 1972 to 1979.

0:05:34.824,0:05:35.567
♪  ♪

0:05:35.567,0:05:37.567
[film projector whirring]

0:05:43.826,0:05:46.937
I think if I had moved to New York

0:05:46.937,0:05:49.960
to become an artist as many people did,

0:05:50.414,0:05:52.414
I would not do the work I do now.

0:05:53.400,0:05:57.775
But because I live in the Bay Area, [br]where you breathe technology,

0:05:57.775,0:06:01.787
the digital landscape here[br]has changed the entire world.

0:06:02.820,0:06:07.230
And it's not insignificant [br]that television was invented here.

0:06:08.188,0:06:11.267
♪  ♪

0:06:13.500,0:06:17.596
I think that we've become kind of a society of--of screens,

0:06:17.596,0:06:21.011
of different layers that keep[br]us from knowing the truth,

0:06:21.011,0:06:24.322
as if the truth is, uh,[br]almost unbearable,

0:06:24.322,0:06:26.976
too much for us to, uh[br]to deal with,

0:06:26.976,0:06:28.358
just like our feelings.

0:06:28.793,0:06:31.586
So we deal with things[br]through replication,

0:06:31.586,0:06:32.960
and through copying,

0:06:32.960,0:06:34.793
through screens, through simulation

0:06:34.793,0:06:37.972
through facsimiles and through, uh,  fiction

0:06:37.972,0:06:40.000
and through faction.

0:06:41.159,0:06:44.239
[experimental [br]electronic music]

0:06:45.660,0:06:53.580
I think that there is not a central[br]answer to whether technology is utopian

0:06:53.580,0:06:58.077
or dystopian I think it depends on[br]humans and how they use it.

0:07:02.235,0:07:04.235
[echoing chatter]

0:07:05.039,0:07:06.962
A lot of my work[br]is interactive

0:07:06.962,0:07:10.158
in that it implicates viewers[br]into making choices.

0:07:12.560,0:07:17.880
Interactivity in these pieces meant[br]dealing with the possibilities in

0:07:17.880,0:07:20.393
technology that existed at the time.

0:07:20.393,0:07:24.572
So when "Lorna" was made, I[br]used an interactive LaserDisc.

0:07:24.572,0:07:25.602
[water bubbling]

0:07:25.602,0:07:27.035
- I was afraid of everything.

0:07:27.341,0:07:30.245
- So you think[br]you know her story.

0:07:31.680,0:07:35.438
Well, good luck.[br]'Cause you're all wrong.

0:07:38.411,0:07:41.297
Lorna's agoraphobic, she's afraid to go out

0:07:41.297,0:07:46.626
The reason she's afraid is because [br]media projects all kinds of images of fear.

0:07:46.626,0:07:48.900
And all she does[br]is watch television.

0:07:48.900,0:07:52.625
♪  ♪

0:07:52.625,0:07:55.735
And you control what you see,

0:07:55.735,0:07:58.172
and in doing so, you [br]become implicated in

0:07:58.172,0:08:01.338
Lorna's life and control her future

0:08:05.571,0:08:08.277
[foreboding music]

0:08:29.796,0:08:32.275
Do you wanna put[br]the hat down by the side?

0:08:32.275,0:08:33.064
Yeah, good.

0:08:34.105,0:08:35.760
- Do you want me leaning[br]in any way, or just

0:08:35.760,0:08:37.796
- No.[br]Just watching.

0:08:40.421,0:08:44.020
- In terms of drama, I'll just shoot something [br]- Okay

0:08:44.501,0:08:48.480
This work, "VertiGhost,"[br]uses, in fact,

0:08:48.480,0:08:50.214
much of my history.

0:08:50.416,0:08:53.008
- That looks beautiful.[br]- It looks more like it.

0:08:54.480,0:08:59.700
The premise was to do something that had[br]to do with the Fine Arts Museum

0:08:59.700,0:09:06.406
and I I remember that Alfred Hitchcock[br]shot a major scene from "Vertigo" there.

0:09:08.640,0:09:12.540
In the original film, the character[br]Madeleine would go to the museum and

0:09:12.540,0:09:16.626
look at the portrait of Carlotta who was[br]a distant relative of hers,

0:09:16.626,0:09:21.319
who had died and who [br]suffered from mental illness

0:09:21.319,0:09:23.940
♪  ♪

0:09:24.142,0:09:26.259
- Okay, Yuli, you can come.

0:09:26.964,0:09:29.855
♪  ♪

0:09:31.244,0:09:34.798
You know, they're both[br]stories of compulsion

0:09:34.798,0:09:36.208
about identity,

0:09:36.208,0:09:38.788
and copies,[br]and copies of copies,

0:09:38.788,0:09:40.901
and not knowing who you are.

0:09:41.626,0:09:45.086
♪  ♪

0:09:46.484,0:09:48.638
Now I'm gonna have you walk[br]around the bench

0:09:48.638,0:09:51.835
and sit exactly opposite[br]than you are now.

0:09:52.237,0:09:53.715
♪  ♪

0:09:53.715,0:09:57.222
And in mine, it tells[br]kind of the haunting story

0:09:57.222,0:09:59.222
of that history.

0:10:00.120,0:10:02.580
And telling[br]the history releases

0:10:02.580,0:10:04.580
the ghost that we keep hidden.

0:10:05.251,0:10:08.918
- Camera, please.[br]And action.

0:10:10.200,0:10:13.137
Putting the exhibition[br]together for "VertiGhost"

0:10:13.137,0:10:15.137
was a total act of trust,

0:10:15.994,0:10:19.530
and improvising[br]what we would do

0:10:19.530,0:10:21.980
- Three and four.

0:10:24.720,0:10:28.255
I like to collaborate.

0:10:29.465,0:10:33.666
I have this joke in my studio that I'm[br]kind of like the idiot savant,

0:10:33.666,0:10:35.349
'cause I can't do anything.

0:10:35.349,0:10:36.832
So I come with an idea,

0:10:36.832,0:10:39.590
and then everybody else knows[br]how to do certain parts of it.

0:10:39.590,0:10:41.514
And eventually it gets done.

0:10:42.144,0:10:42.772
- [laughs]

0:10:42.772,0:10:45.212
- So, um,[br]this has been printed

0:10:45.212,0:10:48.587
on the back of this,[br]and it's Plexiglas.

0:10:48.587,0:10:52.192
And we took the original image[br]of Carlotta

0:10:52.192,0:10:55.000
and we're gonna put the camera[br]on the wall

0:10:55.000,0:10:56.255
in back of the eyes

0:10:56.255,0:10:59.011
so that it picks up anybody[br]walking through the room.

0:10:59.292,0:11:01.836
[Claudia] I'm sure it's gonna[br]be quite startling.

0:11:02.138,0:11:04.079
- It's so bizarre.[br]- It really is.

0:11:04.079,0:11:06.320
[laughs]

0:11:06.320,0:11:07.248
- [laughs][br]But are you happy with it?

0:11:07.248,0:11:09.248
- I am. Thank God.[br]- Oh, good.

0:11:09.248,0:11:10.454
That's the most[br]important thing.

0:11:10.454,0:11:12.693
- You know, you never know[br]if these things are gonna work.

0:11:12.693,0:11:13.621
[chuckles]

0:11:21.570,0:11:24.639
♪  ♪

0:11:27.000,0:11:30.690
This is the way it works. Somebody sits on the bench.

0:11:31.345,0:11:36.283
There's a bouquet of flowers that has sensors in it.

0:11:37.831,0:11:41.379
That turns the camera on in the painting

0:11:44.529,0:11:50.880
The painting captures the[br]image of the person who's looking at the painting

0:11:51.000,0:11:54.641
puts them in the 3D box to the de Young Museum which is at a different location

0:11:54.641,0:11:56.000
which is at[br]a different location.

0:11:56.000,0:12:00.120
it's in Golden Gate Park and inserts the[br]viewer there.

0:12:01.380,0:12:05.587
So it kind of ties all of them together, almost like a double helix

0:12:05.587,0:12:07.573
between the two buildings.

0:12:08.480,0:12:09.614
♪  ♪

0:12:11.978,0:12:15.147
I think that I'm asking[br]viewers to consider

0:12:15.147,0:12:17.147
what it real, what isn't real

0:12:18.120,0:12:20.890
why we need to imitate something,

0:12:21.596,0:12:25.677
and the credibility of the things around us.

0:12:30.997,0:12:34.160
♪  ♪

0:12:36.899,0:12:43.940
I think it's great that finally my work[br]has become part of a cultural history.

0:12:44.334,0:12:47.460
That finally I'm not in debt.[br][laughs]

0:12:47.460,0:12:49.460
For the first time ever.

0:12:53.399,0:12:58.466
I think I'm really lucky. I got a lot of[br]freedom from being unknown,

0:12:58.970,0:13:01.397
where I could do anything[br]I wanted to.

0:13:02.707,0:13:04.313
And now it's too late[br]to change.

0:13:04.313,0:13:05.317
[laughs]

0:13:13.078,0:13:15.184
To learn more about Art21 and our

0:13:15.184,0:13:22.344
educational resources please visit us[br]online at pbs.org/art21

0:13:22.520,0:13:28.980
[Music][br]art in the 21st century season 9 is

0:13:28.980,0:13:33.500
available on DVD[br]to order visit

0:13:33.500,0:13:40.980
shop.tbs.org or call 1-800 play PBS[br]this program is also available for

0:13:40.980,0:13:53.080
download on iTunes[br][Music]