MDID - Born to be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads the Strange Case of Baby S/M

Accession Number:

16_00453

Creator:

Martha Rosler (American artist, 1943-)

Creator:

Rosler, Martha

Classification:

Film, Audio, Video and Digital Art

Course:

Obler AH3165

Culture:

American

Description:

Watch eagle-eye video and performance artist Martha Rosler tackle the case of surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead as represented by the main-stream media. This tape uncovers the class and gender bias of the media coverage and the courts. X-tra inventive graphics and kooky dress-up illustrate Rosler's insightful analysis of the court battle, waged within the tricky issue of contemporary reproductive control in America. Fun for the whole family!!! [ Paper Tiger Television; http://papertiger.org/node/754]; Martha Rosler tackles mainstream media's representation of the case of surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead. This video, made with the collective Paper Tiger Television, uncovers the class and gender bias of the media's coverage and the courts, including the nefarious way in which Whitehead was discredited as the mother of the baby and portrayed as "psychologically unstable." Inventive graphics and kooky costumes illustrate Rosler's insightful analysis of the court battle, which cogently contrasts the financial and other rewards of the mostly male professionals involved with those of the surrogate mother--while placing surrogacy and parenthood within a larger political analysis of contemporary reproductive control in America. [Video Data Bank; http://www.vdb.org/titles/born-be-sold-martha-rosler-reads-strange-case-baby-m]

Location:

New York, United States - (private collection)

Material:

One Channel video, 35:00

Measurement:

35 min ()

Object Date:

1988 (creation)

Object Type:

commercial art; video art

Style Period:

Contemporary -

Subject:

Fine Arts; Performance; Photograph documenting performance; Social Science; Human Relations; Gender politics; Gender bias; Social Science; Human Relations; Gender politics; Reproductive rights; Social Science; Human Relations; Gender politics; Surrogate parenting; Social Science; Political science; Social Class; Class bias

Technique:

videography

Title:

Born to be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads the Strange Case of Baby S/M

View:

Partial View: Detail view; Film still from video depicting the artist Martha Rosler wearing infant clothing with a placard reading "Melissa Stern" across her chest. [ exhibited at the "The Decade Show": Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, May 16-Aug. 19, 1990, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, May 12-Aug. 19, 1990, and at the Studio Museum in Harlem, May 18 to Aug. 19, 1990.]

WorkID:

9276

Identifier:

9276_16_00453.jpg

Collection:

FAAH Collection

Record created:

April 18, 2016

Last modified:

April 28, 2016

Born to be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads the Strange Case of Baby S/M

Collection Memberships