Martha Rosler: Positions in the Life World

I want to make art about the commonplace, art that illumines social life. I want to enlist art to question the mythical explanations of everyday life that take shape as an optimistic rationalism and to explore the relationships between individual consciousness, family life, and the culture of monopoly capitalism.”Since the late 1960s, American artist Martha Rosler has produced seminal works in the fields of photography, performance, video, installation, critical writing, and theory. Committed to an art that engages a public beyond the confines of the art world, Rosler investigates how socioeconomic realities and political ideologies dominate ordinary life. Her astute critical analyses are often cloaked in deadpan wit.This book, which accompanies the first retrospective exhibition of Rosler’s work, contains seven color photo essays by Rosler; an excerpt from the curatorial project “If You Lived Here”; essays by Alexander Alberro, Catherine de Zegher, Sylvia Eiblmayr, Jodi Hauptman, and Annette Michelson; a conversation between Rosler and Benjamin Buchloh; and a biography/bibliography along with a complete list of art works.EXHIBITION SCHEDULE” Ikon GalleryBirmingham, UK”December 1998 – January 1999″Nouveau MuseeVilleurbanne, France”January 1999 – February 1999″Generali FoundationVienna, Austria”May 1999 – August 1999″MACBABarcelona, Spain”Fall 1999″The New MuseumNew York City”Spring 2000