Artist Post 1: Martha Rosler

Martha Rosler

Martha Rosler was born on July 29^th, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York.  A graduate from Brooklyn College in 1965 Rosler received her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of California, San Diego in 1974. Working with various mediums from writing, video, photo-collage, photo-text, and instillation and performance work Rosler’s pieces have been on exhibition in numerous galleries and museums since 1963. Rosler’s works appeared in museums both abroad and in the United States such as the Center for Contemporary Art- CCA, the New York Museum of Modern Art, London’s Institute of Art and Worchester Museum of Art.  Currently Martha Rosler is working and living in Brooklyn, New York. 

Rosler’s has focused on topics that she feels passionate about such as issues of politics, class, and gender.  In Martha Rosler’s series, “Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful,” Rosler created photo-collages from life style magazines and images collected from the Vietnam War to make a commentary on the war and how it affects people in their suburban homes.  Recently, in 2004 she revisited this project however focused on the Iraq war and how the images come into U.S. homes every evening.  It is apparent Rosler’s work often relates to women and the roles that they often play.  Domesticity plays a reoccurring role in Rosler’s work.  In 1975, Rosler produced a mock cooking show “Semiotics of the Kitchen,” where Rosler stares directly into the camera, reciting kitchen instruments A through Z, and abruptly performing how to use each object.  Rosler stating in referring to this piece, “I was concerned with something like the notion of 'language speaking the subject,' and with the transformation of the woman herself into a sign in a system of signs that represent a system of food production, a system of harnessed subjectivity.”

I am interested in Rosler’s work and how clear she portrays her messages through her art. My project originated with the idea of storytelling, I had fashioned my work to recreate scenarios that are familiar to everyone as well as nostalgic memories that most people share.  I want to research domestic roles and how they have changed over the years to try and expand my work.  Rosler often focuses on domestic subject matter, which relates to ideas I am working with. 

Quotes 

“So much of my work involved the Vietnam War that it would have been obscene to show it in a gallery. But now, it’s different; it’s important to remember and to enable the young to discover what to some of us is still so present.” - Martha Rosler.

"My art is a communicative act," Ms. Rosler says, "a form of an utterance, a way to open a conversation." -Martha Rosler

Interview: http://lib.stanford.edu/women-art-revolution/martha-rosler-2008

Website: http://home.earthlink.net/~navva/index.html

Martha Rosler, Cleaning the Drapes, Bringing the War Home, 1967-1972

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Martha Rosler, Photo- op, Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful, 2004

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Martha Rosler, Beauty Rest, Bringing the War Home, 1967-1972

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Martha Rosler, Cargo Cult, Body Beautiful, or Beauty Knows No Pain, 1966-1972

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Martha Rosler, Hot Meat, Body Beautiful, or Beauty Knows No Pain, 1966-1972

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Martha Rosler, Semiotics of the Kitchen, 1975, 7 minutes

Works Cited

Rush, Michael. Martha Rosler.  Reviews and Interviews. The New York Times 9 July, 2000. 30 January 2011.  <http://home.earthlink.net/~navva/reviews/nytimes.html>.

Moffat Charles.  Embracing Controversy. 29 January 2011.  <http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/Martha-Rosler.html>.

Vallen, Mark.  Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful.  14 February 2007.  29 January 2011. <http://art-for-a-change.com/blog/2007/02/bringing-war-home-house-beautiful.html>.