THE PLAYBOY SPECIAL

When the veteran artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson (who was last in town with DiNA, a talking robot with the face of Tilda Swinton) decided that she needed a sex doll for her latest exhibition, she initially tried to order one with her own measurements. No surprise that she found it cheaper to go with a super-skinny body instead, so she designed the doll in Olympia: Fictive Projections and the Myth of the Real Woman to resemble the prostitute in Édouard Manet’s controversial 1863 painting Olympia. Made from a moist rubbery material, the eerily lifelike doll (who looks a lot like Sandra Bullock) beckons to you from a chaise longue as video projections of the Manet work are displayed across her body (to examine contemporary issues of projected fantasies, natch). The exhibit also includes digital prints of sex dolls in crates that appear to be emotionally involved in what awaits them upon delivery. And you can meet the artist herself at the opening-night party (tonight, at 6:30 p.m.).
Sat., April 26, 6:30 p.m., 2008