Martha Rosler's The Bowery In Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems: Analysis
1178 Words5 Pages
However this could be challenged, for instance when considering the visuals in figure 1 compared to the text in figure 1, they have very little in common. The image and text when separated produce completely different associations. For example, if you look at the text itself it is a grouping of words which are maritime sayings, yes it could be interpreted as american slang for being drunk, however one could argue that without the context of the Bowery or the context of Rosler exhibition the words which she has used would not convey homelessness and alcoholism. In addition the image on its own could be interpreted as just a cityscape or document photograph, and that the photograph itself does not convey anything about sailors or the sea. Therefore suggesting that the image and text here only work as a form of 'representation' when they are put together, as they complement one another both producing different signs which together signify, to an extent, the reality of the Bowery. Therefore arguing that the text and image's anchorage to one another only happens when they are put in the context together. As the ideas which they both signify complement one another…show more content… another from Martha Rosler's The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems series documents the same ideas about life in the Bowery as Figure 1. This image also explores homelessness and alcoholism in the area of the Bowery, the interpreter is presented again with a shop front next to a group of words. The text in figure 2 could be construed as meaning something that is being preserved, for example, "stewed, potted, pickled" etcetera; however one might determine than the text means otherwise. Hopkins argues that "blotto, sloshed, canned, stewed, out of the picture, plastered. In 1974 such words and expressions, denoting the state of drunkenness in terms of American slang usage" (2014, p341). This conveys how, alike to figure 1, figure 2 is also exploring homelessness and alcoholism in the