Jayne Mansfield
Asher Liftin, 2023, Acrylic ink and acrylic paint on canvas, 60" x 40"
Liftin’s background in cognitive science informs much of his work, which explores questions of technology, visual experience, engagement, and alienation. Jayne Mansfield, a sex symbol of the fifties, is here given back to us in pointillistic form – smiling out at us through pixelated eyes. Liftin takes a familiar figure, someone who, because of the workings of fame and popular culture, we might in some way lay claim to, and renders her distant, unreachable, and unreal – locked behind the screen.