Eleanor Antin: Politics & Paper Dolls | ART21 "Exclusive"

[Eleanor Antin: Politics & Paper Dolls]

I thought that I was

finished working with paper dolls

and was on to other things--

["Theater of the Absurd" (2016)]

until those idiotic Republican debates,

and that insane list of characters

that could have been in some mad comedy.

I have little Marco trying to be noticed.

He's trying to go like this

but he's half in the light.

Trump is the narcissistic absurdity he is.

Cruz, he's like a vampire.

I wanted to put a little blood on his lips,

but I didn't want to be too obvious.

My work has always been political,

has always been comic--

and also sad.

That was one of the advantages

of being brought up by a Communist.

Everything you read in the paper was a capitalist lie.

--You want to look at these guys?

You know, for someone like me,

who is known for reinventing history

in terms of the present--

with the similarities and ambiguities--

I realize, oh my God, this is like...

I was prophesying!

You know, the future!

Hijacking a plane is one of the most

horrifying things you can think of.

Life is a mixture of the absurd,

the comic, and the disastrous.

At some point, this airplane hijacking happened

and they had a movie of it,

["The Nurse and the Hijackers" (1977)]

and they had it on TV endlessly,

this horrible movie.

But, it was a fascinating story

about Entebbe--

it was a place in Africa.

There were political problems

and the rebels stole a plane.

There was something fascinating

about the horror of a hijacking of an airplane.

There's me.

There's Eleanor.

--[ANTIN CHARACTER VOICE OVER] I don't know
if I can go through with this.

--I'm so very scared!

[ANTIN] In my film,

the hijackers are eco-hijackers.

They steal the plane

so that they can go to OPEC nations

and convince them not to sell oil to the West

because it was destroying the planet.

--[ANTIN CHARACTER VOICE OVER] So this planet

--is in a state of crisis.

--You know it is in this state

--and we know it.

[ANTIN] And then the Israelis come

and they shoot the hijackers.

And this one guy--by accident,

in his entusiasm--

gets killed.

--[ANTIN MAKES SOUND EFFECTS OF MACHINE GUNS
FIRING]

--[ANTIN CHARACTER VOICE OVER] Omer, hold
your fire!

--Oh Temir, you fool.

--Oh my God!

--[ANTIN MAKES SOUND EFFECTS OF MACHINE GUNS
FIRING]

[ANTIN] It's a long, complicated fifty-page script.

--[ANTIN CHARACTER VOICE OVER] So what have
you got now,

--night games,

--and AstroTurf,

--and, and...

--television!

--And where... is...

--Ebbets Field... now?

--Gone with the steeplechase, mother!

--You know they've got apartment houses there now!

[ANTIN] This is Judy Chicago.

This is Jackson Mac Low,

the poet.

--If this wasn't stuck on,

--he's naked underneath.

--He looks so cute!

Whenever a friend would come to visit me,

I would make them model for me.

I love looking at them

and looking at them in the video.

And some of them,

they're my friends who are dead.

This is Ree Morton,

my friend who got killed in Chicago.

She is my chief hijacker.

This is Elizabeth Murray,

with the glasses.

I hate it,

but the point is that death is built into life.

And then people always say,

"Yeah, but people have to die"

"so that other people can come forth"

"and have their life."

And, you know, I mean,

what kind of bullshit is that?

--[ANTIN SINGS]

[ANTIN] I mean, I'd like the people...

everyone to be happy,

but what do I care if this other person,

a hundred years from now,

gets born, you know?

Like, I want to stay born!

I want to stay alive!

And I won't.

Death is for everybody I know.

Of course, it's also for the people I don't like,

so that's maybe not so bad,

but also the people I love!

It certainly makes me enjoy my life.