Sonya Rapoport’s most extensive project, and an early example of interactive computer art, Objects on My Dresser was created in eleven “phases” over five years (1979-83.) The final, 12th phase, was created in the last year of Rapoport’s life (2015).
The phases range from complex interactive performances to single-page publications and were exhibited at such venues as Franklin Furnace, NY; 80 Langton Street, SF; Artists Space, NY, and published in “Leonardo” and “Heresies” magazines.
Objects on My Dresser sees Rapoport applying computing and the principles of scientific visualization to the analysis of psychologically charged objects. In the manner of Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document (1973-79) that mapped an evolving mother-child relationship, the project is informed by feminism and psychoanalysis.
Objects On My Dresser, Phase 4: Exhibition in Print, LAICA (Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art) Journal No. 31, Winter 1981.
Begun while Rapoport was mourning the death of her mother, Objects on My Dresser makes use of twenty nine personal objects sourced from the tansu dresser in the artist’s bedroom. Rapoport began by unpacking these objects in the context of psychoanalytic discussions with her collaborator, Winfred De Vos. She then systematically categorized these objects and visualized their meanings and relationships using the computer. This became the basis for multiple thematic evolutions and public interactions that document evolving responses to the objects and their connective associations.
Objects On My Dresser, Phase 1: Computer Printout Drawing (detial), 1979. 14.875W x 11H inches.
Twelve Phases of Objects on My Dresser
OBJECTS ON MY DRESSER BOOK
Sonya Rapoport: Objects On My Dresser (2022) is an 86-page book that offers a comprehensive exploration of Sonya Rapoport’s most ambitious project – by Alla Efimova and Terri Cohn.