Untitled (Roberta’s Signature in Guest Book) 1975

Curator: Lynn Hershman's "Untitled (Roberta’s Signature in Guest Book)" presents us with a photographic image of a guest book opened on a table. Editor: It’s imbued with such quiet melancholy, isn't it? The stark black and white, the half-empty glasses, the open book... a sense of absence hangs heavy. Curator: Indeed. The composition is deceptively simple, directing our gaze to the book itself, its pages holding the trace of 'Roberta' - a fictional persona Hershman adopted. Editor: Roberta, this invented identity, it's fascinating how she becomes a symbol of the self, the constructed nature of identity in modern society. The signature as a placeholder for a life. Curator: Precisely. The photograph then becomes a document, a record of a performance, of this fabricated identity leaving its mark within a very real social setting. Editor: This resonates deeply; it reveals how deeply entwined our sense of self is with the perceptions and projections of others, particularly within the social rituals of 'signing in'. Curator: It is in the contrast between the stark formal presentation and the complex conceptual layering of the image that the artist constructs a compelling interrogation of the authentic versus the artificial. Editor: And what better place to do it than with the iconic symbol of the Guest Book! It has shifted my view of identity, even the signatures I leave behind.