Martha Rosler - Kitchen Semiotics

A classic. I totally get this video now. I saw it a year ago at the WACK! exhibit and was like "what is up with that lady banging pans?" It's such a complex video first about how the domestic world is constructed and the tools of women's (generally) labor. In viewing it again it takes on an aspect of violence in how she presents each of these implements. Even the ladle is used violently (if you consider standing next to her over a pot of hot soup). So her use of the tools - without food - brings me to thinking about Louis Althusser and the ways in which violence (or the threat of violence) are used to control people, in this case women. There's an ambiguity in Rosler's video as to whether she (as Woman) is an object of the violence or a subject-agent of the violence. That ambiguity keeps this piece relevant and gripping to me. There is more to say on this video, but that is for my research paper.

Installation, Part II

In this version, I pulled together several of the more experimental pieces I did. Overall received more positive feedback.

Installation, Part I

So this is the first exhibit I created to show my work from the semester. Mixed reviews (on the eye painting especially) so I made changes. Positive feedback about the cubicle wall that I installed (learned how to drill in the process too!)

Artist Heroine Avatar

Well, I think that's what the kids are calling them these days. This work is a collaboration with my brother, graphic comic novelist Matthew Bayne (check him out http://www.girlamatic.com/comics/kots.php). This piece, the Artist Heroine, links the two projects. AH transforms from desk jockey to superheroine - out to fight for justice (and paint some too). Suddenly my career and artistry have a place where they co-exist. One cannot be without the other. The AH needs the CW (career woman) as the CW needs the AH.
Oh, will someone tell me why spell-checker identifies superheroine as a spelling error but not superhero?

Deconstructing the Sign (and Signifier)

The text collaged in the work is from Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The passage quoted considers the negative impact on the world that women were not allowed to work outside the home. Such wasted energy.

Needlecraft

In this girl sign, I experimented with embroidering the girl sign on pink silk stretched over canvas. The fabric arts traditionally associated with women are honored in this version. Equally so, the tradition of passing on craft within communities of women and from mother to daughter.

The Artist As The Girl Sign, Part II

So in the photo a few entries down, you see a pic of me standing awkwardly against the wall in the role of Girl Sign. The unseen was the collaborative element to the work - a tracing left of me against the wall, underscoring yet again the difficulty that is Being the Girl Sign.

MOMA Does Girl Sign

Leave it to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art in New York City) to reinvent the girl sign (too). Is that Prada?

She's Lost It

There are many ways in which the Girl Sign can lose her head, not the least of which is due to her having no neck. How many English Queens? How many women in oppressed states in the past and present? These paintings consider all those headless women.

More Girl Signs

These signs are part of the Girl Sign series. In these pieces I am exploring how women are viewed in the larger socio-cultural context. I'm keeping comments to a minimum on these. What do you think?

The Artist As The Girl Sign

In painting these Girl Signs I realized that the proportions of this figure in a triangle dress are bizarre. She has unusually long legs (who was the government bureaucrat who designed that??) and that dress hangs out to the side in a rather unusual way. She has no waist or chest. The bureaucrat must have been more of a leg man.

So I stepped into the Girl Sign's shoes (does she wear shoes? what are those round bumps at the end of her legs?). In this case I put on 3-1/2" heels to get her leg length. And then the hands. She has no hands - just more rounded bumps at the end of her arms. To match, I held my hands in fists. I couldn't do anything about my neck obviously. It makes me sad and curious that the Girl Sign has no neck. How does she speak? How does her head stay on her shoulders? How does she feel about not being able to shop for necklaces? Or scarves? I pulled my hair back - I am a dedicated artist but not so much so that I would shave my head for art. Well, at least not this project (at this point).

And as for not being all smiles in the photo think about it: standing in 3-1/2" heels, pressed flat against the wall, clenched fists and a skirt bordering on indecent. Being a Girl Sign isn't easy, that's for sure.

No Damage, No Man Sign Suit

I went back today to take down my Girl Sign installations. There was neither damage nor defacement to the pieces. The tackiness of the tape that adhered them had started to wane so they began to pull off the wall. I was disappointed to see that the Man Sign did not have the outfit promised to him. I'll be curious to hear if anyone notices the absence of their outfits. The presence of absence seems so postmodern somehow. As does my disappointment that the art was not mangled or damaged (or perhaps that's post-postmodern). It's summertime, so there is not a lot of traffic in the hallowed halls. I'm curious what people thought and if the outfits increased their identifications with the Signs, or if they were even noticed.

My First Art Installation Project

Going back to the source, the sign on the women's room door, I gave the Girl Signs attire. I chose three different outfits designed to push back against this 3-year-old in a dress motif. I will be returning to the installation soon to remove them and see what (if anything) was done to or around them in the last couple of weeks. One guy said seeing the Girl Sign dressed made him feel like the Man Sign was naked and that he was going to get paper and scissors and create something for the Man Sign. I'm curious if that happened.

The Girl Sign Manifests

I am exploring the ways in which women are gender-coded at work and in our society as part of my studio work in the MFA in Visual Arts program through the Vermont College of Fine Arts. One day at work I noticed they had changed the bathroom door sign. It no longer said 'WOMEN' on a brass plate. Instead, there was an ADA-compliant sign that had been slapped up where the brass plate was pulled down. They hadn't even bothered to re-paint the door so the ghostly remains of WOMEN were left on the door. I found the new sign slightly disturbing as the figure in it was in a triangle dress. How many women do you know wear triangle dresses to work? Isn't that what 3-year-old girls wear to church on Easter? I felt sad for her and oddly identified with her. I wanted to give her a cute dress...or something. And then I realized that there was something here, something profound. Signs, signifiers...all that post-modern language came to mind as I thought more about this figure. I drew scores of sketches as I developed my ideas. Shown here is the first painting from the Girl Sign Series.