Eleanor Antin’s “Nurse and Hijackers”

In this video, Eleanor Antin draws on the form of popular disaster movies to explore history, contemporary culture, and identity from a feminist perspective. The narrative—a hijacking of a nurse’s plane on its way to Saint-Tropez, France—is enacted by paper dolls, whose voices and gestures are performed by the artist. This unfolds aboard a handcrafted set also made by the artist. Using recognizable styles from film and television of the time, Antin’s feature-length narrative invites viewers to consider the ways that contemporary international politics are represented in the media.