Martha Rosler Semiotics of the Kitchen (1975)

Martha Rosler

Rosler was born in Brooklyn, New York. She is a video, installation, and performance artist. Her work has focused on different social concerns like women’s experiences, war, the environment, and media. In 1975 she produced a 7 minute black and white video, “Semiotics of the Kitchen”, in which she transformed a perfect motherhood suburbia kitchen into a “war zone”, making a statement about the depression and frustration of domestic slavery. In a performance in which the artist performs a violent cooking session, different kitchen utensils become weapons. Confronting the idea as of the kitchen as the center of the family life, the artist explores women’s identities, as well as making a clear reference to Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique.