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The New York Public Library

presents

**

An Artist Dialogue Series
Event<http://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2013/09/18/love-doll-laurie-simmons-glenn-o%E2%80%99brien-artist-dialogue-series-event>


<http://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2013/09/18/love-doll-laurie-simmons-glenn-o%E2%80%99brien-artist-dialogue-series-event>

* The Love Doll*

* Laurie Simmons*

* in conversation with *

*Glenn O’Brien*

*
*

**

Wednesday September 18, 2013

6:00 p.m.

**

Margaret Liebman Berger Forum

Room 227 (2nd Floor)



The New York Public Library

Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

5thAvenue at 42nd Street

New York, NY 10018

917-275-6975

 *www.nypl.org*

(directions) <http://www.nypl.org/locations/tid/36/directions>

 Room 227 opens to public at 5:30 p.m.
All events are FREE and subject to last minute change or cancellation
*Artist Laurie Simmons is joined by writer Glenn O’Brien to discuss various
subjects including dolls and artifice, sexuality and identity, imagination
and physicality, fetishism and the evolution of gender identities,
archtypes and taboos, as well as the specific processes of taking
photographs and making movies*.



In 2009, Simmons opened a new chapter in her work and ordered a custom,
high-end “Love Doll” from Japan. Simmons documented her photographic
relationship with this human scale “girl,” depicting the lifelike, latex
doll in an ongoing series of “actions”—each shown and titled
chronologically from the day she received the doll, describing the
relationship she developed with her model. The first days of somewhat
formal and shy poses give way to an increasing familiarity and comfort
level. A second doll arrived one year later. This new character—and the
interaction between the two dolls—reveals a new formal and psychological
dynamic. In search of a stage for her Love Doll, Simmons turned to her own
home, transforming it into an artfully staged, oversized dollhouse. A tale
of disquieting adult fantasy, desire and regret, *The Love Doll* accompanies
the complete photographic series with the artist’s diary entries.



*Copies of the book are available for purchase and signing after the
audience Q&A.*

* *
*Laurie Simmons* <http://www.lauriesimmons.net> is an artist who lives and
works in New York and Connecticut. Staging photographs and films with
dolls, puppets, ventriloquist dummies and dancers as “living objects,”
Simmons<http://www.pbs.org/art21/watch-now/segment-laurie-simmons-in-romance>animates
a world immersed in memory, longing, and regret. Her work appears
unsettling as characters struggle with identity. Widely exhibited,
Simmons<http://catalog.nypl.org/search~S97/?searchtype=a&searcharg=simmons%2C+laurie&searchscope=1&sortdropdown=-&SORT=D&extended=0&SUBMIT=Search&searchlimits=&searchorigarg=asimmons%2C+laurie>has
had solo exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walker Art
Center, and The Gothenburg Museum in Sweden, among others. In 2006 she
produced and directed her first film titled* The Music of Regret*, starring
Meryl Streep and the Alvin Ailey 2 Dancers. The film premiered at The
Museum of Modern Art, and has been screened at The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Pompidou, and the Tate
Modern. She is currently working on her second feature length film. This
fall, the Arnold and Marie Schwartz
Gallery<http://www.metoperafamily.org/en/gallery/about/About-the-Schwartz-Gallery-Met/>at
The Metropolitan Opera will show new work inspired by the Nico
Muhly opera, *T* <http://goog_970136381>*wo Boys*. Simmons will have a solo
exhibition at Salon 94 <http://www.salon94.com/> in New York in March 2014.

*Glenn O’Brien* <http://glennobrien.com> is a writer, editor and creative
director. He writes a monthly column for
*GQ*<http://www.gq.com/about/glenn-obrien>and contributes to many
publications  including
*Purple*,  *Harper’s Bazaar*, and *Ten*. His recent book, *How to Be a
Man*<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBIL1d_nDmQ>
(Rizzoli) is in its fifth hardcover printing. He worked as creative
director for Barneys, Island Records and Calvin Klein, and has created
advertising campaigns for Chanel, Dior, Calvin Klein, and Dolce & Gabbana.
He<http://catalog.nypl.org/search~S1?/ao%27brien%2C+glenn/aobrien+glenn/1%2C1%2C8%2CB/exact&FF=aobrien+glenn&1%2C8%2C/indexsort=-#anchor_1>has
written extensively on art, with essays and monographs on such artists
as Jean-Michel Basquiat, James Nares, Richard Prince, Tom Sachs, Dash Snow,
Christopher Wool, and Andy Warhol. He has edited an anthology of hipster
literature, *The Cool School*, which will be published by the Library of
America in the fall of 2013.

Initiated and organized by *Arezoo Moseni* in 2004, *Artist Dialogues Series
* provide an open forum for understanding and appreciation of contemporary
art. Artists are paired with critics, curators, gallerists, writers or
other artists to converse about art and the potential of exploring new
ideas.


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