Much of the work I do with legacy planning grows out of the work I’ve done with the estate of Berkeley-based artist Sonya Rapoport (1923-2015).
I am therefore very excited to share the publication of “Objects On My Dresser,” an 86-page book by Alla Efimova and Terri Cohn that offers a comprehensive exploration of artist Sonya Rapoport’s most ambitious project.
Objects on My Dresser (1979-83, 2015) is conceptual artist Sonya Rapoport’s psychological self-portrait for the digital age. Motivated by the recent passing of her mother, she joined together with a psychologist in a project that was part therapy, part creative collaboration. During the psychoanalytic process, Rapoport selected 28 objects that had accumulated on her bedroom dresser, ranging from travel souvenirs to family photos, small curios, and other keepsakes, which became anchors for the analysis. Rapoport turned to a newly available tool—the computer— and used the data mined from psychoanalysis to code, plot, and graph her interior experience. With exclusive access to archival materials and interviews with the artist during her lifetime, Efimova and Cohn decode Objects on My Dresser and position it in the canons of Conceptual, Feminist, and early computer art.
Sonya Rapoport, Objects on My Dresser (Collage), 1979. Collage on photographic print, 8 x 10 inches.
I played a lead role in preserving, documenting, and researching this groundbreaking feminist computer artwork, and have supported Alla and Terri in creating what we hope is an informative and beautiful book. So this project is very close to my heart!
Learn more about the publication on the Sonya Rapoport Legacy Trust website.