On March 16, in a stark, all-white gallery at the San Francisco Museum of Art, Annlee died, her final resting place a white coffin embellished with a vase of white carnations. Pinned to the wall behind was a document titled, How to Kill Yourself. In a separate part of the "No Ghost Just a Shell" exhibition, groups of museum visitors gathered in front of a television set to watch videos of Annlee starring in seven short animations. Annlee was created as a shell, a stock Japanese manga character offered for sale by Kworks, a production company in Tokyo. As a generic animated character, she could be licensed for video games, animated films, advertising campaigns, and other commercial purposes. In 1999, artists Phillipe Parreno and Pierre Huyghe bought her copyright and invited other artists to help envision a life for her, to fill her shell. Among the results were the seven animations in the exhibition. In each, Annlee pondered her identity and the conditions of her existence. She pined in one, "I would like to spend the day lying on the couch, but I can't." In another, she stared at the ocean, ribbons of her hair blowing in the wind, and vowed, "Tomorrow, I am starting a real job." But, instead, she was laid to rest. Push-pinned to the wall across from her coffin the legal document titled Agreement on the Assignment of Author's Rights to Annlee served as her death certificate. Now that Annlee's copyright belonged solely to her, no more new pieces featuring Annlee could be made.
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