31.7.13

Martha Rosler and Fashion



I have an interest in all of the visual arts; painting, photography, film, and um, duh: fashion. This online quiz thing once told me I was a “Visual Thinker”... #OMG #SoTrue. So, I recently ended up in a Google black-hole exploring the work of Martha Rosler, an artist who primarily uses collage as her medium of choice. I was particularly interested in her most recent body of work, which incorporates images from modern fashion magazines within each piece. When someone decides to mix fashion within another medium, I totally geek out.

Ok so at this point you’re probably like, “Fashion collages? Really? Giiiiirl, I decorated all my High School binders with cool fashion collages and you don’t see my shit hanging in no museum. Who cares?” So, okay, collage may not be the most difficult of mediums to master, but it gives Rosler’s work an emotional value that no other medium could not have achieved. An important aspect of her work is the fact that she uses only pre-made images, imagery that already exists in the world, independent of Rosler putting them together. The tension that this juxtaposition creates hits the viewer like a ton of bricks. See:







We are a generation that has been inundated with war imagery. We are also a generation that has been equally as inundated with glossy fashion advertising. Separately, neither of these images get a rise out of us. We are desensitized to the violence of war just as we are desensitized to the facade of advertising. We have an equal familiarity with both. Rosler’s work forces us to confront this, and makes us think about the way the we process media today. Thoughts my fellow fashion lovers? PS- Sorry if this work has offended you but...well the best art does that, doesn't it?

Until Next Time,

Brittany



5 comments:

  1. these are amazing. i love how she juxtaposes the rawest of realities and the most fantastical of realities. great find and glad that you shared her work.

    abigail
    www.farandwildjewelry.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. No offence at all, I think these collages, (that word doesn't seem quite big enough) are brilliant. You are absolutely right about our desensitization. The beauty of any art is in it's ability to start a conversation and make you think for longer then thirty seconds. Thanks for sharing.

    x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love this post, her work is incredible! I am definitely a huge collage artist fan, it was something that I thought my work would focus on when I first started art school, it turns out I was right :P I have never heard of this artist so thank you so much for sharing. You should also check out Wangechi Mutu. Not so much about fashion but I believe one series of her collages was made primarily from porn magazine images.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fun post very cute thnx for ur first comment on my blogg id like to send you a give what size shoe are you ?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Regarding all aspects the blog was perfectly nice. bubblegumcasting.com

    ReplyDelete