Martha Rosler, Pencicle of Praise

Bar Laika is very pleased to present Pencicle of Praise (10 minutes, 2018), a video-in-progress by Martha Rosler.

Vice President Mike Pence, as the smiley face of the Trump Adminstration, also acts as cheerleader-in-chief.  In accepting the vice-presidential nomination in 2016, Pence proclaimed, “I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican—in that order,” suggesting how we should understand his statements and behavior. We see him here expressing and eliciting gratitude to his president during various press occasions. This ground-breaking, earth-shaking video begins with moments from a grand televised conference early in 2017 at the White House Rose Garden, showcasing the president’s announced intention to withdraw from the historic Paris Climate Accord. Other moments of pious gratitude are enacted for the press by the president’s minions. The music—the Battle Hymn of the Republic and the national anthem—were part of the Rose Garden broadcast, which also ends the video.

In her work in video, photo-text, performance, critical writing, and installation, Martha Rosler constructs incisive social and political analyses of the myths and realities of contemporary culture. Articulated with deadpan wit, her video works investigate how socioeconomic realities and political ideologies dominate ordinary life. Presenting complex critical analyses in accessible forms, Rosler’s video works merge performance, narrative, documentary, and mass media images.  Martha Rosler lives and works in Brooklyn. Her survey exhibition Irrespective is currently on view at the Jewish Museum.

For more information, contact laika@e-flux.com.