Catherine Sullivan's Desincarnated Theater: The Chittendens and Earlier Works

Catherine Sullivan's video work, emerging in the mid-1990s but gaining prominence with Five Economies (Big Hunt/Little Hunt) in 2002, uses theater as a code and tool rather than a subject. Her latest video, The Chittendens, premiered at Wiener Secession in June 2005, later shown at Tate Modern (Nov 2005–Jan 2006), Metro Pictures (Nov–Dec 2005), Galerie Catherine Bastide (Brussels, Nov–Dec 2005), and Gio Marconi (Milan). The 104-minute, six-chapter work, shot on 16mm and transferred to video, references an insurance company. It juxtaposes two color films, Poverty Island Lighthouse and The Resuscitation of Uplifting, set on a deserted Wisconsin island, with 19th-century archetypes. Subsequent chapters, shot in a 1960s Chicago office building, feature 16 actors and 14 attitudes, with choreography by Sean Griffin (D-Pattern). Earlier works include 'Tis Pity She's a Fluxus Whore (2003), combining John Ford's play and a Fluxus program, and Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Island (2003), inspired by the 2002 Moscow hostage crisis during Nord Ost. Ice Floes was shown at Kunstverein Braunschweig in 2004, where Sullivan integrated the venue's 18th-century villa architecture with elements from the Chicago Polish-American Veterans Association building. Sullivan's work denies empathy, directing actors toward desincarnation, yet retains humor and mystery.