The image of the work is not available online.
The East is Red, The West is Bending, 1977
In this performance-based video, Martha Rosler reads the instruction booklet of a newly-marketed consumer appliance: a West Bend electric wok, the modern version of a traditional Eastern cooking pot. The reading recalls an amateur, local television cooking demonstration. Demonstrating the use of the wok at home, this ‘failed Mrs Pat Boone’ delivers an absurd description of the utensil. A few incongruous inserts into the language of the booklet turn a straightforward corporate text into an astute ideological deconstruction.
While trying to convince the buyers and users of this appliance to transform themselves into connoisseurs of exotic foreign cuisines, Rosler cleverly deconstructs the imperialistic ideology of industrial manufacturers.
Technical details
- Original title:
- The East is Red, The West is Bending
- Registration number:
- 3229
- Artist:
- Rosler, Martha
- Date created:
- 1977
- Date acquired:
- 2008
- Fonds:
- MACBA Collection. Barcelona City Council long-term
- Object type:
- Audiovisual recording
- Media:
- Single-channel video, color, sound, 19 min 57 s
- Credits:
- MACBA Collection. Barcelona City Council long-term loan
- Copyright:
- © Martha Rosler
- It has accessibility resources:
- No
The MACBA Collection features Catalan, Spanish and international art and, although it includes works from the 1920s onwards, its primary focus is on the period between the 1960s and the present.
For more information on the work or the artist, please consult MACBA's Library. To request a loan of the work, please write to colleccio [at] macba.cat.
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