Martha Rosler's Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful, 1967-1972: An Interrogation of the American Dream
Loading...
Date
2012
Authors
Ampe, Megan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Rosler’s 1967-1972 series, Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful conflates
images of domestic interiors with images of combat related to the Vietnam War. This thesis
places the series within the socio-political context of the Cold War examining the manner
in which Rosler utilizes specific elements of governmental ideology and rhetoric to
implicate the viewer in complicity with American involvement in Vietnam. The
dissemination of governmental ideology through advertising, the effects of desire, and the
critique of consumption conveyed by this series are investigated. The series is analyzed in
terms of Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Uncanny and in relation to historic use of
photomontage. In the final chapter, Rosler’s revival of the series, begun in 2004, is
compared to the original in terms of its ability to effectively alter the viewer’s perception of
the war in Iraq in terms of politics, media, and institutional context.
Description
Keywords
Activism, Advertising, Iraq, Martha Rosler, Photomontage, Vietnam