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From The Desk Of Oneida’s Kid Millions: Martha Rosler

In 2008, Oneida began the Thank Your Parents triptych with Preteen Weaponry. Since, the Brooklyn band—Kid Millions, Bobby Matador, Baby Hanoi Jane, Showtime and Barry London—has completed it with 2009’s Rated O and the new Absolute II (Jagjaguwar). The quintet is touring Europe in August and is also playing the Asbury Park, N.J.-based All Tomorrow’s Parties in October. In addition, Millions will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Millions: I went and saw Martha Rosler speak at Electronic Arts Intermix a few months ago and saw The Semiotics Of The Kitchen, The East Is Red, The West Is Bending and something else. The Semiotics Of The Kitchen is a very pure distillation of a woman’s rage in the boxed confines of a suburban kitchen. It was made in 1974. The FAQ is apparently, “Do you like to cook?” She said, “Well, I used to like to cook, yes. But I don’t much anymore.” There’s another Martha who’s also well known for her kitchen videos. I guess that Martha went to jail and has had Snoop Dogg on as a guest—maybe more than once—but don’t expect me to fact check that. The East Is Red is another video of Rosler reading from an electric-wok instruction manual. The electric wok is a Western “elaboration” on an Eastern cooking utensil that’s lasted very well for thousands of years. As the video unfolds, you realize the deeply entrenched racist assumptions that drove the Western manufacturer’s electrified “improvement” on a perfectly functional piece of cookware. Straight out of the box, the electric wok is still a piece of shit. You won’t even find one in a thrift store now.

Video after the jump.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zSA9Rm2PZA