Interview with Martha Rosler

Abstract

Rosler: The question of medium per se isn't terribly interesting to me. Meaning is, and I use the appropriate medium. Often it's not a decision so much as it is a matter of the way the work presents itself to me. If a text unfolds in my mind, I may wind up with something written. If I want a greater intensity of address, something seen, that may become a script for a videotape. Sometimes I want video's lack of definition; at other times I want the sharpness of film. Most of the video I do addresses television forms. In installations and performances, I pose a question: What if... ? What if people were to find themselves in such a situation, physically present? Presence makes a great difference. Voyeurism, for example, in relation to women, functions differently when projected on a screen than when physically present. Sometimes I just want people to be in a situation or to participate actively, as in the two garage sales. Sometimes, though, I want a work to be discontinuous and weightless. The postcard works were just carried in on a card, with a stamp, an address, a printed text. The week's interval between episodes meant that the depth of the work had to be enacted in the reader's mind. Duration was important, but the physical medium was nothing.