Sculpt

Sculpt is a "social science fiction" film written and directed by artist Loris Gréaud. Produced for LACMA, the film is Gréaud’s first major exhibition project on the west coast of the United States, as well as his first feature-length film. It stars Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Abel Ferrara, and features an appearance from The Residents.

The film was designed to be screened to only a single audience member at a time, and it is estimated that only five hundred people have seen the film during its run at LACMA's Bing Theater in August 2016. The film's score consists of previously released material by The Residents; a soundtrack album containing The Residents' music was sold as a limited edition CD at the premiere screening of the film.

A fifty minute re-edit of the film, titled Sculpt: Eye of the Duck, is expected to screen in Hobart, Australia in June 2026 as part of the city's annual Dark Mofo arts festival. Only ninety "viewing slots" (nine per day) will be available to festival attendees.

History

For the presentation, which premiered on August 16th 2016, 599 of the 600 seats in LACMA’s Bing Theater were booked out, reconfiguring the space to accept only one audience member at a time. Each screening of Sculpt is therefore turned into a unique one-person experience, with the film effectively "watching its visitor as it is watched".

The screenings took place due to a generous loan from Voodoo Queen Priestess Miriam Chamani, who also appears in the film. Chamani permitted the film's distribution solely at LACMA, to whom the film was on loan for an unspecified time.

It is estimated that only five hundred people viewed Sculpt during its original run at LACMA. It is said that Loris Gréaud subsequently "gave the files to hackers" to distribute over the dark web, however as of March 2026, the film is yet to surface on the wider internet.

Sculpt: Eye of the Duck

A new, fifty minute edit of the film, titled Sculpt: Eye of the Duck, is expected to screen as part of the annual Dark Mofo festival in Hobart, Australia in June 2026. Screenings will be again limited to one audience member at a time, with only nine "timed, solo-viewing slots" available per day over the course of the festival - a total of ninety individual viewings.

Each selected audience member will be picked up and driven to an undisclosed, remote "disused facility" outside the city to view the film. Festival attendees who miss out on a viewing slot can "wait on a bench each morning in case anyone fails to show up for their time slot".

Synopsis

Sculpt is a "social science fiction movie that depicts unprecedented shapes and experiences, along with obsessions and fantasies."

Cast

• Willem Dafoe
• Charlotte Rampling
• Abel Ferrara
• The Residents
• Michael Lonsdale
• Pascal Greggory
• Claude Parent
• Betty Catroux
• Miriam Chamani

Soundtrack album

The Residents' soundtrack for Sculpt was released on CD in a limited and numbered edition of one hundred copies, which were sold at the premiere exhibition of the film at the LACMA in 2016.

The CD contains twenty tracks, including sixteen classic Residents songs and four tracks of dialog from the film.

Track listing

1. Sculpt Scene I
2. Title (Strange Culture)
3. The Graveyard (Haeckel's Tale)
4. Burn My Bones
5. The Walrus Hunt
6. Birth
7. Sculpt Scene II
8. Hello Skinny
9. Sculpt Scene III
10. Floating Down the Nile (Part 2)
11. Charlie Chan
12. Rabbit Habit
13. Sculpt Scene IV
14. Everyone Comes to the Freak Show
15. The Horns of Hannynesville
16. The New Hymn (Recessional)
17. Another Land
18. Boo Who
19. Krafty Cheese
20. Arctic Hysteria

See also

• Loris Gréaud
• Cortical Palace
• List of soundtracks and scores by The Residents

External links and references

• Sculpt at Wikipedia
• Sculpt at IMDb