Selected Works

Cynthia Maughan

1973-1978, 27:02 min, color and b&w, sound

This selection of short video works by Maughan includes sketches colored by her satirical wit and eclectic persona. In works such as Scar/Scarf, where she desperately tries to cover a scar with style, and The Way Underpants Really Are (1975), an unsexy reveal of her tattered, oversized underpants, Maughan explores the fear and shame that comes from failing to live up to the standards of a society obsessed with flawless beauty. Eerie works like Coffin From Toothpicks and Frozen & Buried Alive (1974-75) allude to a dark fascination with mortality, yet sustain humor via the absurdity of her characters' stories.

Tape #1 1974 (Circa.)

Cynthia Maughan

1974, 9:34 min, b&w, sound

Two twigs, stuck in a plot of soil with a little cross made of twigs between them, bend slightly over a gravesite. A rustling sound—crumpled paper meant to evoke the mournful sobbing of the sticks—mixes with traffic noises outside Maughan's studio. The scene is as pathetic as it gets, especially...

Tape #13 1975 (Circa.)

Cynthia Maughan

1975 (circa.), 10:13 min, b&w, sound

Maughan's direct-camera performances, most of which feature her in different guises and scenarios, bear comparison with the works of Cindy Sherman, William Wegman, and Michael Smith in their oblique approaches to self-portraiture, which are less concerned with biography than with their makers'...

Tape #20 1975 (Circa.)

Cynthia Maughan

1975 (Circa.), 10:12 min, b&w, sound

Tape #3 1974-1975

Cynthia Maughan

1974-1975, 9:15 min, b&w, sound

Taking cues from Edgar Allan Poe, Harry Houdini, and William Wegman, Maughan applies a faux-confessional storytelling style to themes oriented around Romantic and Symbolist literature—and lurid B-movie adaptations thereof—in this macabre tape. In its first two pieces, The Magician's Cabinet and Froz...

Tape #47 1976 (Circa.)

Cynthia Maughan

1976 (circa.), 22:14 min, b&w, sound

Tape #50 1977: Trailer Life

Cynthia Maughan

1977, 21:46 min, b&w, sound

In this tape, Maughan enacts a series of skits taken from and inspired by Trailer Life, a periodical for recreational vehicle enthusiasts. The collection of letters, columns, and stories that Maughan assembled from the magazine reflects a range of class, gender, and racial stereotypes—a dark side...

Tape #54 1977-1978

Cynthia Maughan

1977-1978, 31:46 min, b&w, sound

Tape #57 1979

Cynthia Maughan

1979, 28:49 min, b&w, sound