Virtual Minefield, an installation by Martha Rosler features two elements: a burlesque of a minefield, as a reminder of current combat zones and as a metaphor of the world political situation, and a mockup of a “phrasealator”, a two-way speech-to-speech device developed by the Defense Department to provide a mechanical translation of set phrases in situations where personnel are unable to speak the local language.

Since the early 1970s, Martha Rosler has produced seminal work in the fields of video, performance, photography, installation and critical writing. Her incisive, often humorous and transgressive, renderings of the social scene reflect her strong commitment to an art that engages with wider publics beyond the privileged spaces of the art world. Accessibility has always been a major concern of hers, as is the role of the viewer in constructing the meaning of the work. She presses viewers to rethink the boundaries between the public and the private as well as the social and the political. Like an archeologist, Rosler peels back the layers of common sense, public discourse, and daily experience to reveal the complex realities behind social myths. She brings a critical eye and deadpan wit to bear on aspects of ordinary life and the political world, with particular emphasis on the impact of patriarchal culture. From “House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home,” the biting series of photomontages that agitated against the Vietnam War, and the current new series addressing the war in Iraq, to the ambitious and innovative curatorial project “If You Lived Here” that addresses homelessness, housing, and urbanism, Rosler has taken on some of the most pressing issues of our times.

On Thursday April 19th at 7 pm Martha Rosler will participate in our Open House Wednesday talks. A dialogue with art critic and writer Marcia Vetrocq as part of her series “WHERE THE TRUTH LIES: on Veracity, Conscience, and Subjectivity in Recent Art”