Landmarks Landmarks Video: Martha Rosler

Landmarks Video presents Semiotics of the Kitchen (1975) by Martha Rosler. Rosler examines the intersections of daily life and the public sphere in mass media, architecture, and urban environments. She also addresses a range of topics that include war, homelessness, transportation, and domesticity through an overtly feminist and political lens.

In the feminist milestone, Semiotics of the Kitchen, Rosler introduces several kitchen tools to the viewer in alphabetical order. The video emphasizes Rosler’s critical engagement with language, a system of signs she likens to housewifery. Rosler uses deadpan humor and references suppressed hostility to challenge those assigned meanings. Her demonstration of alternative ways of using and seeing cooking utensils is also one of her unwavering commitment to use her artistic practice as a platform for social, cultural, and political questions.

Semiotics of the Kitchen by Martha Rosler
Landmarks Video media station
ART building atrium, adjacent to Visual Arts Center galleries
23rd St. and San Jacinto Blvd.
Free admission
On view throughout June