Monologues II: patriarchal traditions and the New Age, 2018 (props)

3 sculptures: a lady, a metronome, and an upstretched hand — Monologues: patriarchal traditions and the New Age, 2018, polystyrene, metronome, cotton glove, interfacing, acrylic, various types of paint, wire, dowel, LEDs, and lighting gel. Photo: Dennis Ha

Closeup of the lady sculpture, with eyes that glow and fade! — Monologues: patriarchal traditions and the New Age, 2018, polystyrene, metronome, cotton glove, interfacing, acrylic, various types of paint, wire, dowel, LEDs, and lighting gel. Photo: Dennis Ha

The Metronome ticks. The Lady blinks. The Finger flexes. Together they perform a scientific experiment that is frequently evoked in debates around the idea of free will. Originally conducted in the 1980s by Benjamin Libet, the experiment was conceived to measure decision making processes in the living human brain. What he discovered was that an action performed (in this case the flexing of a finger), began in the brain before the conscious decision to initiate the action took place.

I investigate the idea of free will through linking the experiment with the nineteenth-century feminine practice of trance speaking. For barred from speaking in public, and capitalizing on their supposed feminine passivity, these early spiritualists took to the stage with their messages of liberation. It wasn’t them that spoke, they claimed. Or was it? Either way people flocked to the spectacle. And thus the early women’s rights movement, among other radical causes, was transmitted.