Experiments in Electrostatics:
Photocopy Art from the Whitney’s
Collection, 1966–1986

Frustrated with painting, Lesley Schiff (b. 1951) began experimenting with the photocopier in the late 1970s. She discovered that with the push of a few buttons, she could use the machine “like a paintbrush.” She described the process as “plugged in. Electronic. Direct. Visual. Spontaneous. Immediate. It goes as fast as your brain and the result is instantaneous.”

Schiff printed her series Seasons at a copy shop in New York by first arranging props, such as a mannequin’s hand, a deflated beach ball, and a toy rocket, on the copier’s glass flat bed. She then manipulated light and shadow by placing papers and textiles behind the objects, lifting the lid while the light bar was in motion, and turning on the machine’s slide lamp to create surreal scenes that hover between dream and reality.