By Kiša Lala
There is a buzz of activity around Mika Rottenberg’s new art project in Harlem —a giant wooden box constructed like a Rubik’s cube with sliding rooms. I visited her while a crew of carpenters, engineers, and assistants finished up before filming began the following week. I asked if she ever worried about the rough neighborhood and the curious strangers walking in from the street. She laughed, “A guy got shot a couple weeks ago but other than that, no!”
Playing with the processes of manufacturing, and examining the value of labour—along with its material and energetic aspects—have been the focus of Mika’s recent work. Her last major installation, Cheese, showed at the Whitney Biennial in 2008. In 2006 she received attention in the art world with her video installation, Dough, in which a mass of dough was stretched and purged through a mechanical and organic system, connected by physical and emotional constructs that resulted in a packaged product of abstract and indeterminate value.
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