The Semiotics of the Kitchen uses the format of a child's alphabet p5rimer to explore the kitchen. Rosler, in medium shot, stands behind a table in front pf her stove and refrigerator--the classic TV cooking-show set-up. "A is for apron," she announces, as she struggles into one of those aprons that needs to be buttoned behind your head. "B is bowl," she says, slamming one down on the table, "blender, and broiler. C is for cup"--fairly innocuous--"can opener"--still functional--"cleaver"--a little more threatening--and, finally, "chopper," which she wields with fury. As she proceeds through the alphabet, rendering eggbeaters, forks, hamburger presses, and rolling pins as weapons, it becomes clear, as she finishes in a Zorro gesture with raised knives, that the semiotics of the kitchen signify containment, fury, aggression, resentment, and potential revenge. The semiotics of the kitchen has nothing to do with cooking.
This is a classic second-wave feminist text both in its anger and in Rosler's "au naturel" self-presentation, with her unmade-up face and long hair hanging loose down her shoulders. The video is also very funny, as each piece of equipment is rendered expressive and sometimes threatening. Unusually for a second-wave text, the feminist is actually in the kitchen--however cross she might be.