Ellen Cantor Is Tragedy a Choice?

The film oeuvre of American artist Ellen Cantor is characterised by her virtuoso use of found footage. Sequences from classic movies, Disney productions, New Wave cinema and horror movies as well as her own video work are edited to create narrative collages that focus on female desire, sexuality, eroticism, and extreme emotions, social conflicts, politics, psychology and institutional violence. After studying Painting at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (1983) Cantor worked in the 1980s and early 1990s above all in the genres of painting and sculpture, before making a name for herself with video works and drawings. A leitmotif in her oeuvre is her statement that “My perversion is the believe in true love”, which not only reflects her personal view, but also references her approach, which was essentially that reception must be critical (“Don’t trust the image”). A central line in her work is an insistence on subverting concepts of femininity conveyed by the media and in culture, breaking open clichés on female identity, and exploring new forms of self-expression.