{{Short description|American visual artist}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Julie Orser | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = 1974 | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, United States | nationality = | education = California Institute of the Arts<br>Pacific Northwest College of Art | alma_mater = | known_for = Video, photography, installation | notable_works = | style = | movement = | spouse = | awards = Center for Cultural Innovation, California Community Foundation | website = [https://www.julieorser.com/ Julie Orser] }} thumb|right|upright=1.75|Julie Orser, ''Occurrence at Lookout Rock'', four-channel video & sound installation, 6 min. loop, 2005; installation image, Torrance Art Museum, 2024.
'''Julie Orser''' (born 1974) is an American contemporary visual artist based in Los Angeles. Orser merges art and cinema in video, animation, photography and installation works that examine mainstream representations of gender, the female psyche, place and time.<ref name="Eler14">Eler, Alicia. [https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/julie-orsers-cinematic-fascination "Julie Orser's Cinematic Fascination"], ''PBS SoCal'', October 6, 2014. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref><ref name="Dambrot07">Dambrot, Shana Nys. "Julie Orser: 'Anna Moore' at Paul Kopeikin Gallery, ''Art LTD.'', September 2007, p.18.</ref><ref name="Leonardi08">Leonardi, Maria. "Julie Orser, Changing Role, Roma," ''ARTKEY Magazine'', April 2008.</ref> Her practice engages with the mechanics and history of American cinema in order to deconstruct genre conventions, narrative structures and character archetypes from a feminist perspective.<ref name="Berardini07">Berardini, Andrew. [https://www.artforum.com/events/julie-orser-183989/ "Julie Orser,"] ''Artform'', June 30, 2007. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref><ref name="Despain11">Despain, Cara. [http://artpulsemagazine.com/doublespeak "Doublespeak"], ''ArtPulse'', November 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref><ref name="LACMA">Los Angeles County Museum of Art. [https://unframed.lacma.org/2019/12/23/lens-2019-acquisitions "LENS 2019 Acquisitions,"] ''Unframed'', December 23, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref> She isolates specific scenes, gestures and moods and amplifies mise-en-scène (setting, lighting or costume), creating recontextualizations that reveal stereotypes and often unnoticed aspects of filmmaking.<ref name="Eler14"/><ref name="CCF">California Community Foundation. [https://www.calfund.org/fva/2010-gallery/julie-orser/ Julie Orser], 2010 Artists. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref><ref name="LACMA"/> In an ''Artforum'' review, Andrew Berardini wrote that Orser's work constructed "a female image that falls somewhere between icon and cliché … deftly re-creat[ing] the lurid dramas of cinematic pulp to study them as sites of fictional femininity."<ref name="Berardini07"/><ref name="Marsala08">Marsala, Helga. [https://www.exibart.com/roma/fino-al-7-iv-2008-julie-orser-roma-changing-role/ "Julie Orser, Roma, Changing Role,"] ''Exibart'', March 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref>
Orser has screened or exhibited work at venues including the Museum of Modern Art,<ref name="Bogert12">Bogert, Aaron. [https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/momas-documentary-fortnight-to-open-with-united-in-anger-and-the-tiniest-places-49408/ "MoMA's Documentary Fortnight to Open with 'United in Anger' and 'The Tiniest Places',"] ''Indiewire'', January 27, 2012. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref> Utah Museum of Contemporary Art,<ref name="Despain11"/> New Britain Museum of American Art,<ref name="NBMA">New Britain Museum of American Art. [https://nbmaa.org/exhibitions/new-media-julie-orser "New Media: Julie Orser,"] Exhibitions, 2015. Retrieved January 8, 2025.</ref> Norton Museum of Art,<ref name="Sjostrom13">Sjostrom, Jan. [https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/story/news/local/2013/11/16/norton-show-explores-how-video/9659159007/ "Norton show explores how video artists deal with narrative,"] ''Palm Beach Daily News'', November 16, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref> and Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara,<ref name="Schwyzer09">Schwyzer, Elizabeth. "America's Absurdist Videos: Unusual Behavior Open at CAF," ''Santa Barbara Independent'', November 2009.</ref> among others. Her art belongs to the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,<ref name="LACMA2">Los Angeles County Museum of Art. [https://collections.lacma.org/node/2286756 Julie Orser], Collection. Retrieved January 8, 2025.</ref> Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles,<ref name="MOCA">Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. [https://www.moca.org/artist/julie-orser Julie Orser, ''Blood Work''], Collection. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref> and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.<ref name="MFAH">Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. [https://emuseum.mfah.org/people/21323/julie-orser Julie Orser], Artists. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref> She is a professor in the Creative Photography & Experimental Media program at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF).<ref name="CSUF">California State University, Fullerton. [https://www.fullerton.edu/arts/art/about_us/faculty_staff/orser.php Julie Orser], Faculty. Retrieved January 8, 2025.</ref>
==Education and career== Orser was born in 1974 in Chicago and grew up in the suburbs north of the city.<ref name="Marsala08"/><ref name="Eler14"/> She moved to the West Coast to study photography at Pacific Northwest College of Art (BFA, 1999), before settling in Los Angeles, where she earned an MFA at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 2005.<ref name="PNCA">Pacific Northwest College of Art. [https://pnca.willamette.edu/academics/bfa/photography/alumni-opportunities "Featured Alumni."] Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref><ref name="Montalvo">Montalvo Art Center. [https://montalvoarts.org/artist/julie-orser/ Julie Orser], Artists. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref>
Orser's early career included solo exhibitions at Paul Kopeikin Gallery and Steve Turner Contemporary in Los Angeles and Changing Role Gallery (Rome),<ref name="Dambrot07"/><ref name="STC">Steve Turner Contemporary. [http://steveturner.la/exhibition/julie-orser-playback#1 Julie Orser, ''Playback''], Exhibitions, 2010. Retrieved January 8, 2025.</ref><ref name="Leonardi08"/> as well as group shows at Magazzino d’Arte Moderna (Rome), Armory Center for the Arts and the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art.<ref name="Palomba06">Palomba, Fabrizia. [https://www.exibart.com/roma/fino-al-30-vii-2006-contemporary-roma-magazzino-darte-moderna/ "Contemporary Roma, Magazzino d’Arte Moderna,"] ''Exibart'', July 12, 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref><ref name="Hebron09">Hebron, Micol. [https://www.x-traonline.org/article/drama-of-the-gifted-child-the-five-year-plan "Drama of the Gifted Child: The Five-Year Plan,"] ''X-TRA'', Winter 2009. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref> More recent solo exhibitions have taken place at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex (2014), New Britain Museum (2015) and CSUF Grand Central Art Center (2017).<ref name="Eler14"/><ref name="NBMA"/><ref name="GCAC17">Grand Central Art Center. [http://www.grandcentralartcenter.com/julie-orser-captain-rooftop/ "Julie Orser: Captain Rooftop,"] 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref> She has also appeared in group shows at Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin),<ref name="KB">Künstlerhaus Bethanien. [https://www.bethanien.de/en/exhibitions/super-8-part-1/ "Super-8, Part 1,"] Exhibitions. Retrieved January 8, 2025.</ref> the Norton Museum of Art,<ref name="Thomason13">Thomason, John. "The Anti-Hollywood," ''Boca Raton Magazine'', November 13, 2013.</ref> Yuz Museum Shanghai,<ref name="Harris19">Harris, Gareth. [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2019/10/31/a-us-china-arab-partnership-lacma-yuz-museum-and-qatar-museums-team-up-on-exhibition-projects "A US-China-Arab partnership: Lacma, Yuz Museum and Qatar Museums team up on exhibition projects,"] ''The Art Newspaper'', October 31, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref> and Torrance Art Museum.<ref name="Davis24">Davis, Genie. [https://www.diversionsla.com/torrance-art-museum-angels-gate-cultural-center-and-palos-verdes-art-center-make-the-south-bay-shine/ "Torrance Art Museum, Angels Gate Cultural Center, and Palos Verdes Art Center Make the South Bay Shine,"] ''Diversions LA'', February 27, 2024. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref>
In 2012 Orser created a music video, short films, and rehearsal and behind-the-scenes videos for the rock band Garbage for their album, ''Not Your Kind of People''.<ref name="Grow12">Grow, Kory. [https://www.spin.com/2012/08/garbage-shirk-their-dark-side-in-big-bright-world-video/ "Garbage Shirk Their Dark Side in 'Big Bright World' Video,"] ''Spin'', August 20, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2025.</ref><ref name="Nelson12">Nelson, Michael. [https://www.stereogum.com/1131221/garbage-big-bright-world-video/news/ "Garbage – 'Big Bright World' video,"] ''Stereogum'', August 20, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2025.</ref>
thumb|right|upright=1.5|Julie Orser, ''Anna Moore'', three channel video & sound installation, 6 min. loop, video still, 2007. ==Work and reception== Orser's art operates within and sometimes against the conventions of film genres including the western, melodrama, silent comedy and horror.<ref name="Clark11">Clark, Ehren. [http://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/index.php/doublespeak/ "Doublespeak"], ''Artists of Utah'', November 3, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref><ref name="Eler14"/><ref name="Hebron09"/> Critics have compared her cinematically referential work to the late-1970s "Film Stills" of Cindy Sherman and to films by Douglas Sirk, Chantal Akerman and David Lynch.<ref name="Berardini07"/><ref name="Thomason13"/><ref name="Hahn08">Hahn, Ho. "Julie Orser: Anna Moore," ''Here Once Again: Where the Art and Cinema Interact'', Seoul: Museum of Art Seoul, National University, 2008, p. 71, 82–83.</ref> Orser magnifies and decontextualizes individual moments and filmic devices such as archetypal scenarios and props, genre music and Foley effects, or lighting tropes, while eschewing clear storylines.<ref name="Eler14"/><ref name="Dambrot07"/><ref name="Hebron09"/> The resulting works instead mine the cinematic residue in a viewer's memory—visual and aural cues or narrative remnants—raising to awareness cinematic codes and cultural stereotypes such as the blond bombshell, male hero or "wild artist."<ref name="Sjostrom13"/><ref name="LACMA"/><ref name="CCF"/>
===Individual projects=== Orser's early work examined male-conceived representations of women and landscape, narrative expectations and subjectivity through the lens of the western and melodrama.<ref name="Despain11"/><ref name="Eler14"/> The videos of ''Occurrence at Lookout Rock'' (2005) were shot at Joshua Tree National Park and placed character archetypes—the Lady, Saloon Girl, Cowgirl and Outlaw—individually in an overlapping, four-channel panorama of rocky, Hollywood desert setting, free of narrative.<ref name="Eler14"/><ref name="Clark11"/><ref name="Davis24"/> Scored with spaghetti Western music, the videos culminate not in the anticipated showdown but with a revolving camera pan and shift of subjectivity in which the characters unexpectedly disappear.<ref name="Despain11"/><ref name="Clark11"/> In the video ''Bottleneck'' (2011) ,Orser restaged the well-known, violent "catfight" from the 1939 western film ''Destry Rides Again'' with two stuntwomen fighting in isolation in a generic art studio space (rather than a bar full of men); scored with the original soundtrack of male hooting and hollering, the video ruptures image-sound relationships, calling into question the older film's construction of such female tropes.<ref name="Despain11"/><ref name="Eler14"/>
In other projects, Orser explored the hyperfeminine female characters of 1940s and 1950s melodrama, film noir and tabloid media.<ref name="Berardini07"/><ref name="Eler14"/><ref name="Teetor15">Teetor, Paul. [https://www.laweekly.com/los-angeles-eats-itself-turned-the-entire-black-dahlia-murder-into-an-edible-art-experience/ "Los Angeles Eats Itself Turned the Entire Black Dahlia Murder Into an Edible Art Experience,"] ''LA Weekly'', April 15, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref> Her 2007 multimedia installation, ''Anna Moore'', mimicked the interior of a house, giving shape and context to a three-channel video of lush visuals portraying a scenario split between candy-colored suburbia and moody mystery centered on a classic 1950s Grace Kelly-style blonde.<ref name="Berardini07"/><ref name="Dambrot07"/><ref name="Sjostrom13"/> In oscillating scenes interspersed with dream-like close-ups of sexual caresses—and unified by character narration—the women appears as a primly dressed, perfect housewife and a wigged, black-suited femme fatale;<ref name="Thomason13"/><ref name="Leonardi08"/><ref name="Berardini07"/> in a third scenario, in the guise of a distraught, highly made-up glamour queen, the heroine finds release from that seemingly suffocating double bind.<ref name="Marsala08"/><ref name="Dambrot07"/><ref name="Leonardi08"/>
thumb|right|upright=1.7|Julie Orser, ''New Narrators ...'', HD animation, 33 sec. loop, animation still, 2018. For the project ''Madeleine'' (2014), Orser considered the iconic Hitchcock blonde from the 1958 film ''Vertigo'' as a site of desire, obsession and onscreen fabrication.<ref name="Eler14"/> The project's installation echoed the film's haunted quality with images and prop representations of its locales, scenes and light without characters—placing viewers in their stead. Juxtaposed were images of six different blonde women portraying the Madeleine character in flipbook-like, rotating head shots from front to back, which recalled the Pygmalion-like attempts of the film's male protagonist (and Hitchcock) to bring a certain vision of the female to life.<ref name="Eler14"/><ref name="Sheehan14">Sheehan, Rebecca A. "Madeleine," ''Julie Orser: Madeleine'', Los Angeles: Luckman Fine Arts Complex, 2014.</ref> Orser turned to the horror genre in the pastiche video, ''Blood Work'' (2009), which intercut quintessential props (leather handbag, high heeled shoe, lampshade) being doused with bright fake blood with images of a perpetrator, set to iconic horror sounds and music to both comical and uneasy effect.<ref name="Hebron09"/><ref name="Schwyzer09"/><ref name="Woodard09">Woodard, Josef. "Off the Off Radar Art," ''Santa Barbara News-Press'', November 20, 2009.</ref>
In later video works, Orser has examined male stereotypes and Hollywood conventions. ''Captain Rooftop'' (2017) offered an absurdist, feminist take on an obsolete masculine figure—a pirate—whose determination to posture and hold his ground proves futile as the surrounding environment literally becomes unstable.<ref name="GCAC17"/> In the collage-like work ''New Narrators ...'' (2018), Orser appropriated 1940s and 1950s print images of white men in suits and animated them being plucked out of frame by women's hands in a range of skin tones.<ref name="LACMA"/> For ''Forest Ambience 2 [Special Mix]: Happy Birds'' (2019), she spliced together film clips that used the same sound sample of birds singing in order to reveal the subtle ways sound is deployed for divergent moods and means.<ref name="LACMA"/>
==Recognition== Orser has been awarded artist grants from the Center for Cultural Innovation (2009, 2014), a California Community Foundation fellowship (2010), and a Lucas Artist Fellowship from the Montalvo Arts Center in 2023.<ref name="CCI">Center for Cultural Innovation. [https://www.cciarts.org/arc.htm ARC (Artists' Resource for Completion) Grants Program]. Retrieved January 7, 2025.</ref><ref name="CCF"/><ref name="Arrey23">Arrey, Taylor. [https://news.fullerton.edu/2023/07/faculty-artist-captures-hollywood-through-a-feminist-lens/ "Faculty Artist Captures Hollywood Through a Feminist Lens,"], Cal State Fullerton, July 18, 2023. Retrieved January 8, 2025.</ref><ref name="Montalvo"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.julieorser.com/ Julie Orser official website] *[https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/wqkjkyO1ePJD32QjlmXQdQ Julie Orser interview], 2020 *[https://www.fullerton.edu/arts/art/about_us/faculty_staff/orser.php Julie Orser], California State University, Fullerton *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvZlDa_pILU Garbage, "Big Bright World"] video by Julie Orser *[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2BEC5A1E2E5BB4F5 Garbage, ''Not Your Kind of People''] mini-films by Julie Orser
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Orser, Julie}} Category:Living people Category:1974 births Category:American women artists Category:21st-century American artists Category:American video artists Category:Artists from Los Angeles Category:California Institute of the Arts alumni