1984
Signed and dated in ink, l.r.
Titled in ink, l.c.
Additional inscriptions and marks in ink and watercolor along the lower margin
Also inscribed and numbered (1/12) in red ink, verso
Vintage chromogenic print (negative sandwich) retouched with ink
16 x 20 inches, sheet
Sold.
Literature:
Lia Gangitano, ed., Boston School (The Institute of Contemporary Art/Primal Media: Boston, Massachusetts, 1995), p. 179, illus. [another example]
Klaus Ottmann, Mark Morrisroe (Twin Palms Publishers: Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1999), pp. 78-9, two-page color illus. [another example]
Beatrix Ruff and Thomas Seelig, Mark Morrisroe (Fotomuseum Winterthur/JRP Ringier: Winterthur, Switzerland, 2010), p. 147, full-page color illus. [another example]
Lorenzo Fusi, Marco Pierini, Bill Arning, and Fiona Johnstone, Changing Difference: Queer Politics and Shifting Identities (Galleria civica di Modena: Modena, Italy, 2012), p. 8, full-page color illus. [another example]
Between 1981-84, Mark Morrisroe shot three low-budget movies on Super-8 film including “The Laziest Girl in Town” (1981), “Hello from Bertha” (1983) and “Nymph-O-Maniac” (1984). These trash aesthetic films were reportedly influenced by such directors as John Waters and Jack Smith.
At 45 minutes, “Nymph-O-Maniac” is the longest and most ambitious of Morrisroe’s Super 8 productions. In his essay “Lipstick Traces: The Films of Mark Morrisroe” in the Fotomuseum Winterthur catalogue (ibid., p. 311), MoMA Chief Curator Stuart Comer writes: “The script seems almost entirely comprised of phrases culled from phone sex lines and porn dialogue, but the gender tables are turned and women play most of the roles. In rooms whose walls are covered in gay male porn magazine clippings and record covers, vamped up girls gossip, come on to each other, apply lipstick, steal drugs, burn popcorn, and discuss their boyfriends’ penis sizes.”
The promo still for “Nymph-O-Maniac” pictures Pia Howard, Nathan Shapiro, and Richard Morel.
Work by Mark Morrisroe (1959-1989)