Recent Paintings by Lynn Book, 1980

Recent Paintings by Lynn Book revealed its critique and its irony in the title.  This feminist gesture extended into the performance installation work included in an invitational exhibition of multimedia and interactive works at Toy Gallery, a short lived, but important forerunner for experimental contemporary art in Memphis, TN.  The performance on opening night consisted of Lynn, performing an ‘infirm’ woman (was she mad? drugged? imprisoned?) who ‘painted’ with her mouth through ‘feeding’ tubes, on her back, with her bound hands, and her feet dripping paint onto the paper where the mouth ‘paint’ was directed.  Book’s stocks-like, quasi-medical construction and the performance ‘painting’ residue remained as part of the exhibition period.   She collaborated with Vincent Wrenn in a sound performance improvisation called “3 on a couch”, in the same exhibition (see photo slide documentation).

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