Laurie Simmons
Walking John Hancock

Walking John Hancock
Walking John Hancock
Walking John Hancock
ArtistAmerican, born 1949
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Walking John Hancock
Date1992
PlaceChicago, Illinois, United States
MediumChromogenic print
DimensionsImage: 9 × 6 in. (22.9 × 15.2 cm)
Sheet: 14 1/16 × 10 15/16 in. (35.7 × 27.8 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Photo Forum 1997
Object number97.446
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

During the late 1970s
Laurie Simmons began creating “a group of photographs that narrate and question
the relationships between beings and things,” using doll figures in surrounding
environments.

“What objects deserved to be anthropomorphized?
That seemed like the easy part, and after awhile, things just presented
themselves to me in obvious ways—a tiny plastic camera keychain from Times
Square, a child’s microscope, an old microphone, and masses of cakes and
petit-fours. . . It felt like assembling a cast of characters for a musical or
repertory company,” said Simmons.

In 1987, she began a series where a pair of legs
(mostly female) carries things on top, such as a camera, a cake, a purse, and
even a house model. In Walking John
Hancock
, a pair of mannequin female legs supports the phallic John Hancock
Center skyscraper in Chicago (which was constructed by one of the best-known
male architects), as if the artist is expressing a feminist statement that the
modern cityscape has been supported by women.


Provenance[Lee Marks Fine Art, Shelbyville, Indiana]; purchased by MFAH, 1997.
Exhibition History"Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brown Foundation Galleries, February 21 - May 9, 2010.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscription: A black ink stamp, verso: "Laurie Simmons / Walking John Hancock (Chicago), 1992 Ektacolor print / 11 x 11" / Sold to benefit Photographers + Friends / United Against AIDS / edition 62/200."
The photograph is signed in black ink, under image: "Laurie Simmons 92."

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

The Love Doll/Day 8 (Lying in Bed)
Laurie Simmons
2010
Chromogenic print
2022.342
Tourism: Las Vegas (Foxy) (2nd View)
Laurie Simmons
1984
Silver dye bleach print
2023.525
Magnum Opus II (the Bye-Bye)
Laurie Simmons
1991, printed 2012
Gelatin silver print
2017.496
Brothers/Hay
Laurie Simmons
February 1979
Silver dye bleach print
83.21
Shrouded:  Clay Slip
Ann Simmons-Myers
1996, printed later
Gelatin silver print
98.716
uncropped recto of sheet
Emma A. Simmons
2010
Inkjet print
2011.488
uncropped recto of sheet
Emma A. Simmons
2010
Inkjet print
2011.487
uncropped recto of sheet
Emma A. Simmons
2010
Inkjet print
2011.687
Cotillion, Los Angeles
John W. Simmons
2016
Inkjet print
2018.567
uncropped recto of sheet
Emma A. Simmons
2010
Inkjet print
2011.486
Evening Gown
Elinor Simmons
c. 1965
Silk faille, organza, sequins, paillettes, brilliants, and seed beads
92.310
object recto
Peter Vanderwarker
2006
Chromogenic print
2013.75