Semiotics of the Kitchen

Martha Rosler's masterpiece that inspired a generation... or at least me.

This video produced in 1975 brings the formalist, minimalist, narcissism of video art of the time in to a more powerful and political place. Taking on the abstract performances styles from Vito Acconci and Bruce Nauman, both trendy at the time, Rosler’s turns this sometimes comical, sometimes frightening lexicon of domestic items into a domestic terrorist’s video (albeit Ore Ida more than Al-Qaeda). The deep tension communicated by the piece is not the concept; it is in the performance itself. Rigid and resentful, she moves from object to object, coding them with anxiety and mindless repetition while at the same time recontextualizing them as domestic weapons of mass construction.