Total Recall (1987)

• 71%
• 1987
• Gretchen Bender

"Gretchen Bender's Total Recall (1987) is the artist's largest realized work of electronic theater, an eleven-channel performance choreographed across 24 television monitors and three projection screens ... Bender mined the mesmerizing, banal imagery of mainstream media, television, and movies, edited together in a barrage of quick cuts, allowing the subliminal meaning of the images to surface in the mind of the viewer as their eyes move from screen to screen. Set against an abrasive score by composer Stuart Argabright, the piece creates a jarring experience that mimics the immersive, yet assaulting image-world from which Bender felt her viewers were increasingly unable to disentangle themselves.