Idea for a Mechanical Eye

Label

Intrigued by distinctions between the real and artifice, Elizabeth King experiments with conceptions of the human form and the machine. For over forty years, she has used her mother, grandmother, and her own body as inspiration for her anthropomorphic sculptures. Her works often eerily resemble mannequins and dolls. In Idea for a Mechanical Eye, King prompts the viewer consider how the technological age has warped our understanding of the human body. King’s sculpture looks onto this exhibition as an undistorted, but detached, symbol of human perfection.

Historically, art has privileged the male gaze, restricting women to the role of the object. In VISION 2020, the majority of the works on view are by men and depict the female body. How do gender roles in this show reflect power dynamics in contemporary society? How does visual media shape our self-perception?

From the 2020 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 98, Vision 2020: What Do You See?, curated by Devon Mifflin '21, Levinson Intern for Campus Engagement

Course History

WRIT 5, Expository Writing, William Craig, Winter 2014

SART 76, Senior Seminar, Jennifer Caine, Winter 2020

SART 76, Senior Seminar, Enrico Riley, Winter 2022

Exhibition History

Elizabeth King: Radical Small, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Massachusetts, March 4, 2017-March 2, 2018.

In Residence: Contemporary Art at Dartmouth, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 18-July 6, 2014.

Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 26,2009-March 15, 2010.

The Object World, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, ARTH2, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 5-March 15, 2015.

Vision 2020: What Do You See?, A Space for Dialogue 98, Devon D. Mifflin, Levinson Intern, Class of 2021, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 11-March 1, 2020.

Publication History

Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009, p.115, no.89.

Michael R. Taylor and Gerald Auten, In Residence: Contemporary Artists at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2013, ill. p. 89 , no. 78

Devon D. Mifflin, A Space for Dialogue 98, Vision 2020, What Do You See?, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2020.

Provenance

Danese, New York, New York; sold to present collection, 2008.

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