PLAY / gallerynine5 / 2011
Fascinated by the mass‐production and fetishism of hyper‐sexualized Japanese figurines, Lichtenstein juxtaposes mass‐produced anime dolls and pornographic comic book characters in ironic situations in order to imbue them with new associations and richer meanings. Lichtenstein challenges her audience to engage with and question the function of these images from a Western perspective; to weigh how much of the images’ sexuality is ascribed by the spectator.
Expanding on her last exhibition, Lichtenstein still works with Japanese female figurines and inserts them into real-world situations from cooking, to shopping, to getting ready for a night out on the town. Each figurine is given stereotypical Western accoutrements like bottles of champagne, designer shoes and bags, and shelves of nail polish. However, with her second show, Lichtenstein moves a step further to create imagined landscapes, and expands her media to include graphic design, 3D text sculptures, light boxes and fabric. The artist strives for the presentation of her work to echo her ideas – art should ultimately entertain. Lichtenstein reveals her playful nature with complex pieces that divulge their depth only with a closer look – a cherry tree image on a light box is actually a composite of X-rated sirens.
In her pieces you can see both feminism and fetishism but ultimately Lichtenstein’s main concern is that the viewer enjoys the journey. The viewer is asked to re-examine the nature of enticement – are the accompanying phrases and speech bubbles amatory or garish? Each vignette in Lichtenstein’s installations is a slate upon which the viewer may consider his or her own notions of sexuality. “You can see this in the way people are drawn to certain of the pieces—both men and women. The piece becomes a sort of Rorschach Test—and what people see are themselves, their fantasies, their aspirations and in the words of Shakespeare, the girls hold ‘a mirror up to nature’.”