Synopsis
Martha Rosler explores kitchen utensils by alphabet.
1975 Directed by Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler explores kitchen utensils by alphabet.
Precise and violent demonstration of feminist humor (and labor commentary), direct and well posed. I spent the film trying to guess what implement was coming next.
52 project: 122/52
When she picked up the knife and fork and said "U", I thought she meant "YOU", as in addressing the viewer, and I was filled with pure terror
Just an echo in the kitchen... my focus seemed to have been on the way everything sounds; this monotonous (somehow a little menacing) voice of the actress and the way these kitchen tools crack when they hit each other without any substance between them. Kinda opposite to the big kitchen shows where everything is pretentious and superficial, where smile and melodious, polished voice cover behind them the oppression that equates woman as material part of the kitchen. I absolutely loved its dark humor! Glad I stumbled on this by accident (actually Martha Rosler was giving a lecture in Finland today but I had no clue who she was before this).
If you are looking to get into video art, or more specifically feminist video art, this is a great place to start. This is both an entertaing and pretty readily understandable piece of video art. Real quick for those who don't know(like myself), semiotics is the study of symbols, and is a really useful place to start with this film. Taking the style of a pseudo-instructional cooking tape, Rosler initially goes through the alphabet naming various kitchen tools and demonstrating their purpose. It quickly becomes clear that she is being far more aggressive than your average person would be. Self described as an "anti-Julia Child", Rosler says the subject "replaces the domesticated 'meaning' of tools with a lexicon of rage…
like if JEANNE DIELMAN was an instructional video but also american and a little aggressive?? honey don’t fling your ladle around like that
An X fan before X fans were a thing
spotlight uh moonlight uh
I’m sad I know yeah suicide
Look at me fuck on me look at me
Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy
Spin on my dick like a beyblade
Kind of a shitpost. I get it, but there's no meaningful semiotics on display or much meaningful feminism. I didn't mind spending six minutes watching the filmmaker display her aggressions while using kitchen utensils like weapons, though.
I didn't get this one at first, but that's usually how I react to all performance art, lol.
The idea is that the actress picks up a kitchen utensil - and goes through the alphabet - and demonstrates how to use it. But this demonstration is violent in some ways. When she reaches the end of the alphabet, the actress just says the letters out loud and creates these letters with her body. This reinforces the idea of habit and imprisonment that some women find in domestic housework - the idea that the actress feels like she has to go through the entire alphabet, even if it makes her look silly, simply because there's a sense of duty to commit…