Mika Rottenberg: Bowls Balls Souls Holes - by Lærke Rydal Jørgensen & Anders Kold (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Consumer critique meets absurdist humor in the "socal surrealist" works of the installation and video artist

Born in Argentina, raised in Israel and now living in New York, Mika Rottenberg (born 1976) explores connections between people in the global consumer society through film, installation, sculpture and drawing. In Rottenberg's work, people--most often women--and machines are engaged in incessant production. Rhythmic editing and sound design whirl us into labyrinthine processes in which goods are manufactured and conveyed in one big, surreal hamster wheel. Her scenarios are funhouse versions of our own world; like science labs investigating naturally occurring phenomena, the artist's installations can be seen as designs and models testing social concepts and abstract systems. Rottenberg herself calls her art "social surrealism."
This catalog, designed by the internationally acclaimed Dutch designer Irma Boom, presents some of Rottenberg's most trenchant work, as well as an interview with the artist by Anders Kold, curator at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and an introduction by William Pym.

Review Quotes

In the interview, Rottenberg confesses that she is "uncomfortable with language," preferring pre- and even post-verbal communication. The images that follow offer tutorials on what that might look like...That these visuals elicit such visceral reactions is a testament to the power of the films, with or without their soundtracks.--Kate Sutton "Bookforum"