Annette Lemieux (b. 1957; Norfolk, VA)
Left Right Left Right, 1995 Photolithographs and pine poles
Annette Lemieux’s Left Right Left Right consists of thirty photographs of raised fists – ten different images, each printed three times – nailed to wooden poles like poster placards. Some of the fists belong to famous political and cultural figures, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Nixon, and Jane Fonda. Others are anonymous: the fist of a sailor, a preacher, a concertgoer Woodstock. together they suggest the united front of a political demonstration whose cause remains unspecified. Taken out of context, the individual fists could be raised in celebration, anger, or solidarity.
Following the recent presidential election, Lemieux requested that Left Right Left Right be reinstalled upside down. Lemieux’s gesture suggests a commitment to individual agency, the continuing power of protest, and a feeling, in her words, that the “world has turned upside down.”
Whitney Museum, 30 January 2017
