Semiotics of the Camwhore by Catalyst Editions and Ann Hirsch

“Semiotics of the Camwhore” by Ann Hirsch is a contemporary day riff of Martha Rosler’s canonical feminist video “Semiotics of the Kitchen” (1975). Just as Rosler used kitchenware to elucidate female domestic aggression, Hirsch updates this idea for women on the internet in the 2010s and uses “webware” to showcase a similar aggression. This video is part of Hirsch’s 2015 net art project, Horny Lil Feminist: a series of thirty desktop screen capture videos that explore the state of online feminism in 2015. In these videos, Hirsch backdrops her own pending nuptials against scenes of pornography (which began to proliferate widely in the 2010s), commodified haul videos, personal reveals, stabs at authenticity, and brings comedic levity to her own X rated nudity. Horny Lil Feminist was originally shown as part of the New Museum’s “First Look” online programming in 2015.

Digital Video: MP4 file format, 712x492