Watchwords of the Eighties
c. 1981
Color video with sound (62 minutes) recording a performance with projections and music
Performed at documenta 7, Kassel, Germany
Recorded at Mercer Union, Toronto
This work was performed at several venues between 1981 and 1983, including the 1982 documenta art exhibition. Rosler, carrying an enormous cardboard boombox, danced to a soundtrack of her own political rap and scrawled political slogans onto projected images of press clippings on draconian budget cuts and U.S.-backed violence in Central America, John Heartfield's 1932 photomontage The Meaning of the Hitler Salute, and a close-up of President Reagan with a fistful of dollars. The performance ended with Rosier inviting the audience to join her in dancing.