As a result, Deschenes sought other contexts for involvement with feminism, queer politics, AIDS activism, examining the power of representation within the medium of photography.
In 2001, influenced by her visit to the National Association of Broadcasters' convention in Las Vegas, Deschenes created her series Blue and Green Screens (2001-2002), which foregrounded the invisible backdrops used for special effects in film production.
[9] Curator and critic Matthew Witkovsky has written that Deschenes' work "pushes against the basic terms by which photography is conventionally defined: instantaneity, veracity, fixity, or reproducibility.
[12] For the work, Deschenes photographed a sheet of perforated paper filtering the light coming through the window, and layered the negative with a duplicate in an enlarger to create an abstract image with illusions of movement.
In an interview with Mousse Magazine in 2014, Deschenes noted that the Moires series sought to "confound" the limitations of making something "with a property largely outside of the confines of photography and expectations that are brought to looking at a photographic work.
[7] Commenting on the title of the work, Matthew Witkovsky has written that the words tilt and swing evoke "abstract issues of viewpoint and manipulation, for example the ways in which the spectatorial subject is turned or focused in the controlled setting of a museum building.
"[15] At the same time, curator Eva Respini has remarked that in addition to the reference to Bayer, it is crucial to consider the influence of Conceptual and Performance Art in Tilt / Swing, as the work requires a physical "activation by the viewer.
Deschenes moved the gallery's entrance to a previously unused exterior side door, leading the viewers through a long hallway (the viewfinder) to two adjacent rooms (the stereograph).
"[19] Deschenes has exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad, including solo shows at ICA/Boston (2016), MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA (2015), Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2015), Campoli Presti in Paris [20] and London (2013),[21] Secession, Vienna (2012), Sutton Lane, Brussels (2010), and Miguel Abreu Gallery in New York (2009).
[10] Her first solo presentation at an American museum, "Liz Deschenes: Gallery 7" was on view at the Walker Art Center from November 2014 to October 2015 and curated by Eric Crosby.
[22] Deschenes' work has been included in numerous group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art,[8] Musee d'Art Moderne, the Centre Pompidou, and Extra City Kunsthal in Antwerp.
[10] Deschenes was also featured in the 2012 Whitney Biennial[23][8] and "Parcours" (2012),[24] a two-person exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago that she co-curated with Florian Pumhösl and Matthew Witkovsky.