Martha Rosler – Semiotics of The Kitchen
Looking at Martha’s expression she shows boredom, maybe sadness. As I watched her kitchen tools demonstrations it is clear she intended to portray the oppressed roles of females working in the kitchen in a solemn fashion, where we can feel the anguish of many women at that time being assigned to a kitchen for most their lives. Martha’s demonstrations of the various kitchen supplies (especially the chopper, fork and knife) were sarcastic, abrasive and aggressive. She is portraying how women felt during the 70s in their simple, meager role as a “kitchen worker”.
When watching the end where she poses the last six letters of the alphabet; U-Z, I noticed the kitchen supplies are alphabetized, starting with ‘A’ for the apron (ironically the first thing a woman would wear when starting kitchen work), then ‘B’ for the bowl, ‘C’ for the chopper, etc. Martha’s use of the alphabet is her vision on how the 70s woman had limited education and intellect. Learning “ABCs” is the first lesson in elementary school even before reading and math. The woman’s duty was to cook for the family – she didn’t need an education – while the husband advanced his education to get a job and provide the income to “put food on the table”.
Fischli & Weiss – The Way Things Go
The artists collaborated to show their vision of how normal objects can be used to creative, innovative ways. It is a sculpture as well as a teaching tool. Peter Fischli and David Weiss had intentions to display in physical form how an object’s interaction with another can lead to a chain of events that can either be predictable or unpredictable. All the objects are part of a system and are equally important, so there is no heavy relevance on a single thing.
The vision is that in our world, even small events can compound into substantial ones over time. Things that serve a purpose can also be influencing something unrelated. Also, the video is more about awareness of objects in our lives in the form of a functioning sculpture rather than video art.