Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King

Elizabeth King combines figurative sculpture with stop-frame animation in works that blur the boundary between actual and virtual object. Intimate in scale and made to solicit close looking her work reflects her interest in the history of the puppet, the automation, the medical model and literature´s host of legends in which the artificial figure comes to life. She asks: “What is the figure in sculpture now? The representation of the body and its life? Can I absorb the news from biotechnology and cognitive science but keep art´s ancient pact with theatre?” King obsessively manipulates her materials to produce pieces that both approximate and challenge the viewer. She has work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the LACMA and the Hirshhorn. Olympia Stone observes the artist at work, talks to fellow artists, friends and students in order to create an intimate portrait of the sculptress.