Barbara Rosenthal

International Garbage
Video
2010

Artist Statement

International Garbage is an experimental audio-video collage documentary. Audial inventions by the young German sound artist Brandstifter accompany Barbara Rosenthal’s compulsive 4-nation collection of collectors collecting. These cacophonous, kaleidoscopic bits work both as abstract composites and as separate little movies charged and invested with hidden meanings and commentary. What could that be? Look again into your rubbish: seek hidden priceless gems. See what they tell you about yourself and your culture; see what the method of collection tells you about the same. This video (shot in Beijing, Paris, Moscow and New York) was released concurrently with Dirty Book, a book of leavings from her studio and kitchen, another of Rosenthal’s works that make art from the trash of life. This video premiered in the Urban Research program curated by Klaus Eisenlohr at Berlin Directors Lounge, Feb. 2010.

Biography

Barbara Rosenthal is an avant-garde artist from New York who produces idiosyncratic combinations of words, communicative sounds, and pictures.  Her videos have screened at Anthology Film Archives, The Kitchen, and Berlin Directors Lounge, and her books are in the collections of MoMA, The Whitney, Tate, and Kunstbibiliotek. Her projects have been reviewed in The New York Times, Village Voice, and Flash Art International. Her work investigates the relationship between an artist’s psyche and the outer world.