Critical Writing Index

Reading the Strange Case of Woman-as-Appliance

by August Jordan Davis

Third Text, Sept 2015, v. 29, no. 4-5, pp. 356-376

Routledge, 2015

Examining notions of feminism, the home, and migrations through the lens of post-World War II art, this essay provides case studies of two pieces: Richard Hamilton's painting $he (1958 - 1961) and Martha Rosler's video collaboration with the Paper Tiger TV Collective, Born to be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads the Strange Case of Baby $M (1988). Both works explore the conflation between women and domestic labour, thereby deconstructing gender politics in the process. Davis appropriates the theories of Lewis Mumford, McKenzie Wark, and Donna Haraway in her utilization of the concepts of the megamachine and the cyborg as a way to undermine misogynist conceptualizations of "woman-as-appliance."

ITEM 2015.040 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

$heRichard Hamilton

Born to be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads the Strange Case of Baby $MMartha Rosler