Eve Sussman & the Rufus Corporation: The Rape of the Sabine Women

Brooklyn-based Eve Sussman founded the Rufus Corporation, an ad hoc group of artists, dancers, actors and musicians who create videos, photographs and live events, in 2003. This volume compiles film stills from two works for which Sussman and her collaborators are most known. 89 Seconds at Alcazar (2004) is a high-definition video tableau inspired by Diego Velazquez’s painting Las Meninas (1656). The piece focuses on the 89 seconds when the Spanish royal family and their courtiers would have been in the exact configuration portrayed in the painting. The Rape of the Sabine Women–featuring a mesmerizing score composed by Jonathan Bepler–is an allegorical video that conflates the myth of Romulus’ founding of Rome with David’s painting Intervention of the Sabine Women (1796-99). It is set in an idealized, cinematic version of the 1960s that includes G-men and a decadent party in a chic International Style summer home.