Life to the power of n

Life to the power of n is a new monograph on the work of artist Lynn Hershman Leeson, released in conjunction with the year-long, joint exhibition of the same name, and co-published by Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, and bitforms gallery, New York, in partnership with The Hess Collection. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is pleased to announce Life to the power of n or, life to the power of infinity, a series of exhibitions highlighting the work of Lynn Hershman Leeson that will take place throughout the Bay Area in 2008. Internationally recognized as one of the most influential among San Francisco based media artists, Hershman Leeson has shaped the history of contemporary art in the Bay Area since the early 1970s. This collaborative survey of the artist's past and current projects is a joint effort among local institutions and art collections; it will feature six presentations over the course of the year, individually organized by each participating venue but jointly promoted under the title of Life to the power of n. For more than three decades Hershman Leeson has worked in a variety of media, including performance, photography, video, installation, artificial intelligence and the internet, and feature film. Re-examining the artist's pioneering contributions to contemporary art, Life to the power of n revisits early site-specific installations and groundbreaking experiments in alternative art spaces. It also features new commissions. Common denominators among the individual presentations are the artist's reconfiguration of historic and archival material, as well as her incorporation of user participation through new online platforms such as Second Life. Life to the power of n proposes that there is not just one real life and one virtual life, but potentially endless manifestations of life and art that combine and mutate into hybrid forms of exhibition display, performance, online communities, interactive interfaces, user-generated content, and public screenings. Life to the power of n was initiated by SFMOMA and coordinated by Rudolf Frieling, the museum's curator of media arts. The project is jointly organized by the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the de Young Museum, The Hess Collection, New Langton Arts, SFMOMA, and 01SJ A Global Festival of Art on the Edge at the San Jose Museum of Art.