Semiotics of the Kitchen, 1975
One of Rosler’s best-known works, in this video the artist is shown in front of a kitchen counter displaying various utensils in alphabetical order, starting with an apron and ending with a tenderiser. Rosler adopts the role of an ‘anti- Julia Child’, the popular American TV chef who is credited with bringing French cuisine to the U.S. public in the 1960s. As suggested by the ironic title and Rosler’s sometimes aggressive behaviour as she demonstrates the function of each object, a lexicon of domestic utensils is transformed into one that foregrounds anger and frustration. As Rosler herself maintains: ‘When the woman speaks, she names her own oppression.’
As in many other of her works, the private yet universal world of the kitchen is seen as the ideal place for deconstructing women’s traditional role. Almost thirty years after creating Semiotics of the Kitchen, in 2003 Rosler announced an open call at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, for a re-staging of the seminal performance and her culinary actions. In a kitchen stocked with cooking utensils, twenty-six women, including actresses, artists, curators and museum staff, participated in a collective action: one by one, they freely re-enacted Rosler’s original script, in a piece subsequently edited by the artist under the title Semiotics of the Kitchen: An Audition.
Technical details
- Original title:
- Semiotics of the Kitchen
- Registration number:
- 2821
- Artist:
- Rosler, Martha
- Date created:
- 1975
- Date acquired:
- 2006
- Fonds:
- MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation
- Object type:
- Audiovisual recording
- Media:
- Single-channel video, b/w, sound, 6 min 21 s
- Credits:
- MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation. Work purchased thanks to Rumeu Family
- Copyright:
- © Martha Rosler
- It has accessibility resources:
- No
The MACBA Collection features Catalan, Spanish and international art and, although it includes works from the 1920s onwards, its primary focus is on the period between the 1960s and the present.
For more information on the work or the artist, please consult MACBA's Library. To request a loan of the work, please write to colleccio [at] macba.cat.
If you need a high resolution image of the work, you must submit an image loan request.
