In 2004, Martha Rosler presented a collection of montages called House Beautiful in which she juxtaposed political art with leisurely art. This particular piece, Photo Op, shows a fiery war scene through the windows of an apartment room. On the chairs in the room we see two dead girls, with their eyes closed, lying, or sitting covered in blood. In front of the depressing background there is an image of a blonde haired girl, pasted twice, overlapping each other. It could also seem like they are two identical twins. They are wearing pink revealing dresses while holding up pink flip phones. They are completely engulfed in what is happening on their phones, and are not paying any attention to the background violence.
This work of art falls into the category of avant-garde art. Avant-garde artwork is supposed to intrigue. The artwork should be radical and unorthodox, something that hasn’t been seen or done before. Martha Rosler is one of the first to criticize the Vietnam War with art, so this is certainly political and avant-garde.The things that she chose to make montages of were things that she believes represent the country’s geopolitics. Martha Rosler used a method in which she took photos from the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan Wars and combined them with pictures from magazines. By juxtaposing these pictures together, Martha Rosler directly takes the conflict of war, something we might turn a blind eye to, and puts it straight into our home, domestic life, something that we live in, that is impossible to ignore. This style of morphing the two mediums together is in essence abstract avant-garde and abstract. It is something intriguing and weird, that has not been seen before. The juxtaposition of this montage is meant to phase the viewer, and make a statement. Literally speaking, the art is political, as it is from wars, a political event. I believe that the message that Rosler is trying to send is that you can’t simply ignore the politics going on. Politics and war come back to you and are something you cannot avoid. Like shown in the image, there is war and hate going on in the background, while there are girls taking pictures on their cell phones in their home. They are materialistic and ignoring the facts, but Rosler is showing us that we can’t do this. We should not be bystanders to the atrocities of war that are affecting so many people around the world. Rather, Rosler is trying to teach a message, to be proactive about war efforts.
I agree with your analysis of the photomontage and the political message that Rosler is trying to convey. I had also chosen to write about an art work from the series “House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home” and I share a similar understanding of Rosler’s message to viewers. Rosler wants viewers to stop focusing their attentions on materialistic and superficial matters like fashion and beauty, and rather shift our attention to politics. The two identical girls as described in the post, taking selfies are so attached to their phones, that they seem to ignore the two dead girls and devastating background right beside them. I enjoyed reading your interpretation in which Rosler puts this scenes of war and atrocities straight into our familiar domestic settings, in order to prevent viewers from ignoring the truth. The truth in which all these wars and atrocities are taking place, but we are spending too much time immersed in our own world to seem to care. Similar to the art work I wrote about “Point and Shoot” the identical girls are the largest cut outs pasted into the art, in order to grab our attention like the model had. All in all, this was great and impressive work!
Rachel, I really like artwork you chose because of political elements in that it is very critical of the war. The idea that Rosler uses this work of art to criticize or protest the Vietnam war is similar to the artwork I chose because both question the Vietnam War. Also, I agree with the message you picked up from this artwork. I too believe that Rosler is suggesting that we shouldn’t be bystanders to war, but I think she takes it one step further by suggesting that women should be more proactive about the war efforts.
Rachel,
This is a powerful piece of artwork. When walking around the museum, I noticed several paintings of this same style together. Rosler’s ability to bring together two separate worlds, one of war and one more modern is avant-garde. I think the fact that she has painted many paintings like this only enhances her message that this is constantly going on. She continues to create art like this because it continues to be a problem. Her artwork is controversial in that it challenges the viewer to reflect on his/herself and his/her reactions to the war that is going on. So many people are focused “on take a selfie” and not on the children losing their lives. I believe this art work is a mimesis of ignorance as the women stands taking a photo of herself completely ignoring the war in the background. Rosler does a great job conveying her message and I loved reading your analysis as well.