Brooklyn-based artist, theorist and political provocateur Martha Rosler is known for her astute and satirical criticism of North American culture. Her interdisciplinary practice – which includes video, photography, mail art (correspondence art), critical writing, performance and installation – seeks to expose the underside of what Rosler has called a ‘prepared world, one already interpreted for us’, particularly in relation to issues of militarism, feminism and the mass media.

Semiotics of the kitchen is a performance-based video in which Rosler satirically performs the genre of popular television cooking and educational programs. In it, she names and demonstrates the function of each device alphabetically, growing more forceful as she attempts to free herself from the contraptions that dictate the workings of a kitchen and assumed domestic labour.