52 THENEWYORKER,MARCH16, 2020
Jordan Wolfson is best known for his interactive animatronic sculptures: uncanny,I
n a recent Frieze article, the edi
tors, trying to decide on the most
important artist of the past de
cade, tossed around a number of names.
The list included O.W.A.s, or Older
Women Artists, recognized after years
of neglect; it had Njideka Akunyili
Crosby, an artist of the African dias
pora, and Olafur Eliasson, who her
alded the rise of immersive works con
ducive to selfies. The editors, somewhat
reluctantly, also discussed Jordan Wolf
son, a thirtynineyearold sculptor
whose work is emblematic of a cha
otic, maddening, fearful time.
Wolfson is best known for the in
teractive animatronic pieces that he
makes in collaboration with a Holly
wood creatureeffects studio in Glen
dale, California. His creations are un
canny, mashedup notquitehumans,
which perform “scenes” and deliver lines
that Wolfson writes, often accompa
nied by a popmusic score. Like memes
turned loose from the laboratory of the
Internet, they engage with the audi
ence in unsettling ways, delivering con
tradictory and controversial messages.
“Female Figure,” which débuted at
David Zwirner’s New York gallery in
2014, is a siliconeskinned simulacrum
of a woman, besmirched with dirt, in
a platinumblond wig, a white strip
per outfit, and a beaky greenblack
witch mask. After delivering a mono
logue—“I’m gay/I’d like to be a
poet”—spoken by Wolfson, who is
straight, the figure, which is transfixed
through the diaphragm by a metal
pole connected to a mirror, begins to
dance. While it vogues and twerks, a
tiny camera hidden behind the mask,
equipped with facialrecognition soft
ware, allows the figure to lock eyes
with the spectator and, via the mirror,
with itself. Did the piece express mi
sogyny, or a criticism of it? Homopho
bia? A veiled confession? It was im
possible to say for sure; Wolfson’s
medium is plausible deniability. One
Frieze editor said, “The politics were
all wrong, yet no one could look away.”
Wolfson, who moves between New
York and Los Angeles, has succeeded
in creating event art that people, many
of whom don’t typically go to galleries,
line up to see. An instinct for contro
versy helps. “Annoyingness is an in
teresting strategy in artmaking,” David
PROFILES
HOT AND TOXIC
Can an artist whose power comes from
provocation survive a newly sensitive age?