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LORNA SIMPSON
(American, born 1960)

Same, 1991
Sixteen color Polaroids with eleven plastic plaques
Gift of the New Art Collectors 1991.22.2
Courtesy: The artist and Sean Kelly Gallery, New York.

Turned away from the viewer and joined by their hair, the figures in Lorna Simpson’s Same demonstrate how identity is falsely constructed from stereotypes. The accompanying text both asserts and denies the subjects’ undifferentiated identities. Simpson asks viewers to examine their own racial and sexual preconceptions while illustrating the universal struggle for individuality.