Huey Copeland

Multiple Occupancy: Eleanor Antin's "Selves" Huey Copeland

From 1972 to 1991, Eleanor Antin (born 1935) created multiple personae of different genders, races, professions, historical contexts and geographic locations. The artist called this motley group--which includes a deposed king, an exiled film director, ambitious ballerinas and hard-working nurses--her "selves." The selves' manifestations were as diverse as their stories: some were embodied by Antin and captured in photographs and on video; others had paper doll surrogates; at times their existence was known only through the drawings, texts and films they had ostensibly left behind. As she explored the fleeting nature of the self, Antin used fiction, fantasy and theatricality to examine the ways that history takes shape, scrutinizing the role that visual representation plays in that process. Multiple Occupancy: Eleanor Antin's "Selves" is the first project to focus exclusively on this critical body of work.