She Sees in Herself a New Woman Every Day

The installation presents the recontextualisation of naturalistic images, a strategy often used in the work of Martha Rosler, as a means of obtaining new perspectives on the everyday. To do this, Rosler uses a fictitious event –a daughter’s account of childhood memories concerning her mother, referencing the oppressiveness of certain maternal upbringings– told in the first person, like an autobiographical story. The twelve photographs on the floor show an unusual view of the artist; her feet seen from above in different pairs of shoes, creating a game of distance and proximity with the viewer. Rosler is dealing here with established social controls over women in both the public and the private spheres, while also commenting ironically on the narrative systems of the autobiographical documentary, in order to make a political critique. At the same time she constructs a new sculptural space, to be explored and negotiated both physically and emotionally.

Lola Hinojosa