Mika Rottenberg’s surreal videos reveal porous architectures, within which absurd human tasks intertwine. For example, the busy protagonists of Squeeze (2010), primarily women, produce mysterious conglomerates of mashed-up lettuces, natural rubber, and cosmetic tins in the most ludicrous assembly line. Often integrating documentary footage of actual working conditions across the world, her orchestration of nonsensical labour ultimately offers an exhilarating allegory for the commodification of people. In the age of globalized hyper-capitalism, the artist enjoys reminding us that truth is always stranger than fiction, as wacky as the latter may be.
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