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1) Untitled-Cargo cult (A piece from Body Beautiful/Beauty Knows No Pain)

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1) Untitled-Cargo cult (A piece from Body Beautiful/Beauty Knows No Pain)

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What is it? One of thirty-two photomontages which make up Rosler's series of images known as "Body Beautiful," this untitled piece takes images of women from popular media of the time(magazines, t.v. show, etc.) and plucks them from their original context to give them a new meaning all together. In this image, traditionally beautiful women doing their make-up are presented as cargo; things to be traded from business to consumer. This shows how women are treated as products, objects of desire to shipped and sold for the benefit of men.

Connection to the course: The idea of women being objectified and posed in-line with the male gaze reminded me of the video in which John Berger describes his views on the nude, the female nude specifically. In said video, he describes how women are constantly taught to think about how they present themselves, to always keep in mind that they being by someone who wishes to take pleasure in viewing them. In Rosler's work, we see women being treated as literal commodities, their visuals are something to sold, a literalisation of Berger's thoughts on the objectification of women as mere objects to be viewed.

Rosler, Martha. “Body Beautiful, or Beauty Knows No Pain (Carousel) 1966-1972.” Martha Rosler, www.martharosler.net/body-beautiful-or-beauty-knows-no-pain-carousel. Accessed 27 Nov. 2024.

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What is it? One of the many images from Rosler's series "House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home," "Red Stripe Kitchen" is quite a simple piece. In the foreground, a sleek, modern (for the time) kitchen greets the viewers, with two Vietnamese soldiers surveying the peaceful kitchen as if it were a battleground. This piece was made during the Vietnam War, a military operation which frequently found its way onto the screens of American, creeping its way into the peaceful lives of the average American through gruesome imagery. This piece demonstrates this phenomenon by quite literally bringing the Vietnam War to home soil, blurring the lines between "there" (Vietnam, where the war was fought) and "here" (America, where the war could be ignored, aside from the imagery which would creep in).

Connection to the Course: This image, though created in reference to the Vietnam War specifically, still works today as a physical representation of war spilling into the home. However, nowadays, the main ways I think of are in Palestine and Ukraine, yet, even if I am not thinking of the same wars, the feelings (uneasiness, fear, powerlessness) remain the same. This made me think of our class discussions on how, over time, items within a museum (such as taxidermy animals) are viewed in different ways, with public opinion and interpretation shifting over generations. Yet, despite not entirely understanding the original context of this piece, the feelings it was meant to swell within me still arose, showing the universal nature of this piece as war continues to rage.

Mann, Ted. “Martha Rosler: Red Stripe Kitchen.” The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/13810. Accessed 27 Nov. 2024.

Wark, Jayne. “Conceptual Art and Feminism: Martha Rosler, Adrian Piper, Eleanor Antin, and Martha Wilson.” Woman’s Art Journal, vol. 22, no. 1, 2001, pp. 44–50. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1358731. Accessed 27 Nov. 2024.

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What is it? Another photomontage within in the same series as the cargo image, this work shows a done-up, smiling woman contently vacuuming away, all the while being surrounded by equally happy and vibrant pop-art made exclusively by male artists. Her smile is, thus, a subtle acceptance of her role in the world of pop-art. She will never be as great the artists responsible for the works around her, so she'd better get used to and content with her vacuum.

Connection to the Course: This image's main idea of women having to be content with never achieving greatness reminded me of our class discussions on all criticism nudes made by women faced during and around the early 20th century. Whether it be the far too pretty nudes of Henrietta Rae or the eerily realistic nudes of Annie Swynnerton, it seemed as if critics were all too eager to remind these up-and-coming women that, though they may try, they will never be able to capture the greatness they seek. Perhaps they'd be more content sticking to vacuuming?

Džuverović, Lina. “Martha Rosler.” Tate, Sept. 2015, www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/world-goes-pop/artist-biography/martha-rosler.