Semiotics of the Kitchen

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© Generali Foundation Collection—Permanent Loan to the Museum der Moderne Salzburg

Martha Rosler

Semiotics of the Kitchen, 1975

Video performance, black and white, sound, 6 min 9 sec Performer: Martha Rosler

GF0001998.00.0-1999

Artwork text

An unsmiling woman, the antithesis of the perfect TV housewife, demonstrates some of the hand tools of the kitchen, replacing their domesticated “meaning” with the alphabetic lexicon of rage and frustration. These securely and commonly understood signs of domestic industry are redefined by the artist’s gestures as vehicles of violence or instruments of mad music. (Martha Rosler)