Martha Rosler works in video, photography, text, installation, and performance. She is interested in exploring issues from everyday life and the media to architecture and the built environment in the public, and especially as they affect women. I am researching her work as she is already part of the conversation that I wish my work to be part of.
For many years Rosler made work about war and the national security climate, connecting the security of home life in the USA with the conduct of war abroad by way of cutting up house magazines with war images. The particular things to note is the execution does not have to be perfect, with parts of legs missing or popping out of the frame, but the message does. In fact, the imperfection is celebrated, maybe an ownership of the fact the image is not hers but one she is subjected to, day after day. So she’s giving it back.
‘Photo Op’ (2004) House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, New Series (2004-2008)
‘Lounging woman’ (2004) House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, New Series (2004-2008)
She has also published several books of photographs, texts, and commentary on public space, ranging from airports and roads to housing and gentrification. I'm very interested in the airport work. Simply by photographing advertisements, she is exposing the lie.
‘O’Hare, Chicago’ (1984), form the series In the Place of the Public: Airport Series (1983-present)
Her website does not seem to have all images from a series, especially some of the more memorable images to me from her original ‘House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home’ series.
House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home (1967-1972)
In Meta-Monumental Garage Sale (2012) at MoMA, New York, Rosler created a large-scale version of the classic American garage sale where visitors could browse and buy 2nd hand goods procured, displayed and sold by the artist. The installation filled MoMA’s Marron Atrium with strange and everyday objects, creating a lively space for exchange between Rosler and her customers as they haggle over prices. If customers agreed, they were photographed with their purchases.
Meta-Monumental Garage Sale (2012)
I first saw her ‘House Beautiful’ series that I resonated with then. The fascination with ‘home’, the hypocrisy in the world and her humour. I must admit, I did not know what some of her photography work was saying but I am particularly interested in looking at her video works for my final semester.