Roberta Breitmore (1973–1979)

After Lynn Hershman Leeson had worked with role reversals and performance elements in numerous pieces, she took the bold step of living under a different identity for five years – in the form of the fictional persona of »Roberta Breitmore«. At times other performers simultaneously embodied the character, who had her own apartment, a bank account and a credit card. She also saw a therapist and sought male acquaintances by placing advertisements in the newspaper. Alongside the dress Roberta Breitmore wore for years, above all the »Construction Charts« are well known, in which Hershman Leeson illustrates, as in an instruction manual, how she transformed herself into Roberta Breitmore. The mask of makeup becomes the interface between the artist’s identity and the fictional character’s identity.

Viewing the numerous documentary materials and photographs of Roberta Breitmore’s activities, it quickly becomes clear that she is an insecure woman plagued by complexes and phobia. The radical reality performance was ended in Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara in 1978 with an »exorcism« that liberated Hershman Leeson from her alter ego.