SAN JOSE, CA.- The first major museum exhibition of works by Bay Area artist Laurie Long opened at the San Jose Museum of Art. Running through June 5, Girl Power! uses pop culture as a vehicle to question social convention, while amusing and encouraging viewers to focus on their own values and those of society as a whole.

Best known for her series, Becoming Nancy Drew, Long’s work investigates serious issues—regarding the construction of female identity, and the implications of female performance within societal codes—in a lighthearted yet challenging manner. The titles of her thought-provoking series suggest the content of the exhibition: the Dating Surveillance Project, the Artist Panty Vending Machine, the Live Action Painting Bra and The Secret History of Goddess Sites.

Overview of Long’s Work - In Becoming Nancy Drew Long physically transformed herself into the famous girl sleuth by appearing in photographic scenes based on engravings from the books. Each Nancy Drew photograph is part of a triptych that includes a pinhole photograph from the scene and the caption from the original engraving. The three pieces within each triptych generate both mysterious and familiar elements that confront and expand the boundaries of memory, identity and personal narrative.

The detective theme appears again in the Dating Surveillance Project. For this series, Long wore a coat rigged with a hidden miniature video camera and microphone. The project was based on her belief that the process of dating is similar to a spy mission. The project is an investigation into romantic role-playing, self- disclosure vs. privacy and the presence of surveillance in everyday life.

Long further explores female identity and society in the Artist Panty Vending Machine, which focuses on the idea of art as fetish object, the nature of celebrity and the perception that clothing retains an aura from its wearer. The installation is a working vending machine selling the artist panties. Inspired by Japanese school girls who sold their panties this way, each pair is placed in a sealed plastic bag and includes a written account of Long’s experiences on the day she wore the panty.

In the Live Action Painting Bra, underclothes are featured again as paintings are created using a specially constructed mechanical bra that squirts paint out of the nipples. Long says, “This mode of creating paintings examines the romantic idea that associates ‘action painting’ with male genius and virility,” says Long.

Her most recent body of work, The Secret History of Goddess Sites, explores places in Europe where female deities were worshipped. The photographs alter the context of each site and address gender issues within religion, history, tourism and archeology.