Total Recall

Courtesy of the Gretchen Bender Estate and Metro Pictures, New York

Contemporary Art

1987

Gretchen Bender
American, 1951-2004

At the heart of Gretchen Bender’s radical production in sculpture, mixed media, and video art is a profound interest in images and their circulation in mass media. Bender’s methods of appropriation and interrogation of media culture associate her with other artists who question issues of representation and the impact of mass culture on the individual, including, among others, Dara Birnbaum, Judith Barry, Sherrie Levine, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, and Richard Prince. Bender traversed boundaries of television, gallery, theater, and nightclub to establish a space that simultaneously entertains and critiques the monolithic role of constructed imagery.

Named after the Paul Verhoeven film, Total Recall is a monumental installation. The 18-minute “electronic theater,” as the artist described it, sets disparate visual material including CGI animation, network news interstitials, corporate logos, and Hollywood film clips to a pulsating soundtrack by composer Stuart Argabright. Like much of Bender’s work, Total Recall evokes the political climate of the time, including Reagan-era military initiatives, cold war politics, and the civil war in El Salvador as represented by Hollywood. Bender’s approach—appropriating and recontextualizing the images as a visual assault deters the audience from passive viewing and instead exposes commercial television for its manipulative operation and rapid consumption of contemporary culture.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Contemporary Art

Artist: Gretchen Bender
Title: Total Recall
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1987
Medium: Eight-channel video installation (transferred from analog video and 16mm film), 24 monitors and 3 projections, color, sound; 18 min; edition 3 of 5, with 1 artist's proof
Credit Line: Gift of Society for Contemporary Art
Reference Number: 2018.260

Michelle Grabner, Brad Killam, and others, Gretchen Bender: Tracking the Thrill, exh. cat. (Manawa, Wisconsin : Poor Farm Press, 2012), 7, 8 (color ill.), 10, 12-15, 16-17 (color ills.), 18-31, 32-53 (color ills.), 66-67, 74, 79, 81 (ill.), 84, 92, 94.
Matthew S. Witkovsky et al., “The Art Institute of Chicago Field Guide to Photography and Media,” eds. Antawan I. Byrd, Elizabeth Siegel, and Carl Fuldner, pl. 346, p. 355 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2023).

New York, The Kitchen, Gretchen Bender: Total Recall, May 7–9, 8 p.m., with an additional performance at 9:30 p.m. on May 9, 1987.
Stockholm, Moderna Museet, included in Implosion: A Postmodern Perspective, Oct. 24, 1987–Jan. 10, 1988, no cat. no.
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Gretchen Bender: Total Recall, Feb. 12–14, 1988, no cat. no.
Graz, Steirischer Herbst Festival, included in Virtual Architecture, Oct. 10–Oct.24, 1989, no cat.
Little Wolf, WI, The Poor Farm, Gretchen Bender: Tracking the Thrill, Aug. 5, 2012–June 15, 2013, no cat. no.; New York, The Kitchen, Aug. 27–Oct. 5, 2013
Tate Liverpool, Gretchen Bender, Nov. 7, 2014–Feb. 8, 2015, no cat.; Dublin, Project Arts Centre, Oct. 23–Dec. 23, 2015.
Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Take it or Leave it: Institution, Image, Ideology, Feb. 9–May 18, 2014, pl. 27.
Berlin, Schinkel Pavillon, Gretchen Bender: Total Recall, Apr. 18–May 31, 2015, no cat.
The Art Institute of Chicago, The Society for Contemporary Art Annual Acquisition Exhibition, May 5–Sept. 3, 2018, no cat.

Gretchen Bender Estate; sold through Metro Pictures, New York, to the Society for Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2018; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 2018.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.