Semiotics of the Kitchen

Martha Rosler works with video, photography, installation and performance, often linking the commonplace to larger contexts. At a work top in an ordinary kitchen, the artist herself methodically presents various ordinary kitchen implements and demonstrates how they are used. Now and then, small shifts occur in the everyday scene, as when she makes violent, stabbing actions with a fork. The familiar semiotic system of kitchens suddenly takes on new meanings. Semiotics of the Kitchen was a ground-breaking work, with its ironic take on the contemporary “women’s role”, parodying the American TV chef Julia Child’s programme for home cooking. Towards the end, Rosler imitates the movie hero Zorro, by “cutting” the last letter of the alphabet, Z, in the air with a knife.