Secret Codes2010

Audio: DJ RoBeat. A predominantly grayscale image and text video that gives way to a startling color still, "SECRET CODES / GEHEIME VERSCHLUSSELUNGEN / BEHALTENER SIMPOLN" uses Rosenthal's own hands, plus a collage of aberrant palms original created for her photograph-photostat multi-panel piece "Poodle Dog/Oz House/Aberrant Palms" in 1990, re-vivified here to investigate the nature of individuality, and its covalent relationships with language and culture. The relentless, compelling audio track is an electronic collage created by Berlin experimental musician, DJ RoBeat. (Premiered at Lettretage, Berlin, Feb. 2010)
CULTURAL STATEMENT ABOUT "SECRET CODES": I have shown work in Berlin 2-4 times a year for five years. I go simply as an artist, I'm introduced as a "New York artist", and listed in the film programs as "American". But it is as a Jew that everyone questions me in private. This video is an attempt to address the great similarities between all human beings, and yet the very small things that make us different, and yet which seem to get all the attention.