(Bell, ‘‘Facing Difference: The Black Female Body,’’
Art on My Mind: Visual Politics, New York: The New
Press, 1995, p. 94).
Her juxtapositions of text with images thus chal-
lenge viewers to interpret whether or not the work
is conceptual or photojournalistic. This method
directly contrasts with the way in which text is
usually used with photographs—as an explanatory
comment or caption. Simpson’s ‘‘captions’’ are
fundamentally political, but open to interpretation,
and suggestive of many things. Throughout the late
1980s and mid-1990s, she continued to create a
series of photo/text works that paired black, female
bodies with text fragments. After 1988 she began to
include close-up images of hair, shoes, candles and
masks in her work.
In the mid-1990s, Simpson began to experiment
with photo-serigraphing her images on groupings of
large felt panels. From a distance these panel group-
ings, such asStill, 1997, appear to be large-format,
straight photography, but as one approaches, the
texture of the felt as well as text emerges thereby
changing perceptions of the piece.
In 1992, the first retrospective of Simpson’s
work, nearly thirty photographs, was held at The
Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. After
this exhibition, Simpson reevaluated the direction
of her work and not long thereafter began to experi-
ment with film and video. An artist-in-residency at
the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State Uni-
versity in 1995 allowed her to complete her first
combined video projections with still, black-and-
white images and large, photo-serigraphed felt
panels,Interior/Exterior, Full/Emptyof 1997. In
this same year Simpson also completedCall Wait-
ingforin SITE97, San Diego (which was also exhib-
ited Johannesberg Biennale in Cape Town, South
Africa), andRecollection.
In her time-based works, Simpson focuses on
brief exchanges between everyday, yet complex,
characters. Each of her video installations is exhib-
ited with related photographic work and seri-
graphed felt panels and the three together formed
a touring exhibition known asScenarios.
Referring to her switch to video installations,
Simpson states, ‘‘I do not want to use the same
devices again and again... I feel the need to present
issues in different ways.’’ Adding digital media to
one’s artistic repertoire was not uncommon in the
1990s, a time when more and more traditionally
trained photographers, painters, and sculptors turned
to new, computer-based technologies. Yet Lorna
Simpson’s video works with related photographs have
much in common with her earlier photographs and
text works. Both reveal an interest in the writings of
Roland Barthes, specifically his bookCamera Lucida.
Photography purists may question whether or
not Simpson’s incorporation of video into her
artistic repertoire has or will have a detrimental
effect on her photography, but she has not ended
her photographic work. Photography is no longer
her sole medium, but most of Simpson’s installa-
tions include photographs and serigraphed felt
panels. Interpretation of how these relate may
not be easy, but theyarerelated, much like the
relationship between the texts and images in her
earlier work.
ChristianGerstheimer
Seealso:Barthes, Roland; Deconstruction; Kruger,
Barbara; Photographic ‘‘Truth’’; Portraiture; Post-
modernism; Representation and Gender; Representa-
tion and Race; Weems, Carrie MaeBiography
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1960. Attended The School
of Visual Arts, New York, B.F.A. in Photography, 1982;
University of California, San Diego, M.F.A. in Visual
Arts, 1985. National Endowment for the Arts Fellow-
ship, 1985; AVA 9: Awards in the Visual Arts, Winston-
Salem, North Carolina, 1989; Louis Comfort Tiffany
Award, 1990; Artist-in-Residence, Colgate University,
Hamiliton, New York, 1991; Polaroid Corporation
Grant, 1993; Artist-in-Residence, The Wexner Center
for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, 1996–1997;A World of
Art: Works in Progress, Lorna Simpson(videorecording),
South Burlington, Vermont: Annenberg/CPB Project,
1997; Artist-in Residence, Walker Art Center, Minnea-
polis, Minnesota, 1997–1998; Award Finalist, The Hugo
Boss Prize, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1998.
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.Individual Exhibitions
1990 Projects; Museum of Modern Art, New York
1994 Standing in the Water; Whitney Museum of American
Art at Phillip Morris, New York
1992 Lorna Simpson Retrospective; Museum of Contempor-
ary Art, Chicago, Illinois
Works by Lorna Simpson; The Ansel Adams Center,
San Francisco, California
1995 Lorna Simpson; Sean Kelly, New York
1996 Lorna Simpson A New Portfolio (Photogravures);
Karen McCready Fine Art, New York
The Body and Deception; Galerie Wohnmaschine, Berlin
1997 Lorna Simpson: Interior/Exterior, Full/Empty, Wexner
Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio
Evidence: Photography & Site; Wexner Center for the
Arts, Columbus, Ohio
1998 Brand New Editions, Karen McCready Fine Art, New
York
1999 Scenarios: Recent Work by Lorna Simpson; Walker
Art Center, Minneapolis, MinnesotaSIMPSON, LORNA