Take Off

Susan Mogul

1974 | 00:10:30 | United States | English | B&W | Mono | 4:3 | 1/2" open reel video

Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles

Tags: Art Criticism, Feminism, Performance, Sexuality, Video History

"I made Take Off in my studio apartment on Myra Avenue during my second year living in Los Angeles. As a member of the Feminist Studio Workshop, I was writing an essay at the time comparing male artists’ representations of their sexuality with female artists’. Vito Acconci was my model for a male perspective. I had been captivated by his videotapes; particularly Undertone, where he was supposed to be masturbating while seated at a table. The videotape was my ultimate response and commentary on Acconci as well as an expression of my own sexuality."

— Susan Mogul

"In a very literal way, Mogul takes to task the whole notion of the male artist’s body as a text of creativity which can be read through its activities and gestures. With a good deal of ironic humor, she transforms the 'girl' into a woman and an artist, who positions herself not under the table (as in Acconci’s Undertone) but directly across from the viewer; alternately discussing the 'history' of her vibrator and occasionally using it."

— Joseph Di Mattia

This title is also available on I Say I Am: Program 2.

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Exhibitions + Festivals

 

Mogul Retrospective, Visions du Reel International Film Festival, 2009 

Blum and Poe Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2008

History of Disappearance, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England, 2005

Made in California:  Art, Image and Identity,

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2000

Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy, 1998

Sunshine & Noir, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles 1998 

Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst, Humleboek, Denmark, 1997

Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany, 1997 

Scratching the Belly of the Beast: Cutting Edge Media in Los Angeles, 1994 

National Video Festival, American Film Institute, Los Angeles, 1985

David Zwirner Gallery, New York City, 1993

Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italy,1993

Anthology Film Archive, New York City, 1976

de Appel Gallery, Amsterdam, 1976

Southland Video Anthology, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach,CA ,1975