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Mogul is Mobil Volume III Redux

Susan Mogul

1975 00:04:38 United StatesEnglishB&WStereo4:31/2" open reel video
Tags:
Autobiography , City , Consumer culture , Culture Jamming , Feminism , Hollywood , Humor , Labor

Description

Looking like a 1970’s version of “Rosie the Riveter”, Mogul takes on the persona of an artist who makes a living posting billboards on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. As Mogul recounts her climb up the billboard “ladder”, she realizes that the only way to truly make a “name” for herself is to create her own billboard. And so she does.

Redux tackles a recurring theme throughout Mogul’s work - a female artist’s anxiety about fame, fortune, and survival in the art world. The Long Beach Museum of Art in Southern California premiered Mogul is Mobil Volume III in 1975. Unlike Mogul’s other humorous and satirical videos of the seventies, this work was never distributed until now and has rarely been seen. Revisiting Mogul is Mobil in 2022, Susan Mogul decided to cut its’ ten minute running time by half, enhance the sound, and voila Redux. 

About Susan Mogul

Since 1973 artist and filmmaker Susan Mogul has developed a body of work that is autobiographical, diaristic, and ethnographic. Her work addresses the human dilemma of self in relationship to family, community and the culture at large. Mogul’s videos of the early 1970s, as well as her recent documentaries, are often featured in exhibitions, publications, and college courses that examine the histories of video art, feminist art, and contemporary documentary.

“The conflict in forging one’s own identity in relation to a group — be it family or the culture at large — has been an underlying theme in my work. I was revealing attempts to define my self-image through humorous autobiographical anecdotes. In them I measured myself against influential role models.” 
— Susan Mogul

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