Martha Rosler: Passionate Signals was the first exhibition by the acclaimed New York–based photo and video artist to center primarily on her interest in flowers, gardens, and related “green” motifs. This may seem a somewhat unorthodox iconographic preoccupation for an artist fêted for her critical interventions in the public sphere and for her pioneering role in bringing together art and activism, aesthetics and politics. Pairing a selection of twenty-five years’ worth of flower and garden photographs with emblematic early video pieces and embroidery, Passionate Signals highlighted the social, political, and economic costs of producing beauty at its most innocuous. “Say it with flowers” – but what, exactly?

Curated by Dieter Roelstraete