Marilyn R. Rosenberg ~ New York

Almost All
By Marilyn R. Rosenberg
New York: Marilyn R. Rosenberg, 2005. One-of-a-Kind.

7.75 x 10"; 140 unnumbered pages. Spiral notebook with green velvet cover. Found objects. Collage.

Marilyn R. Rosenberg: "Punched holes often seem to act as pagination. Minimal collage, with only a [few] hidden words on airy facing spaces. Red pencil marks are [combined] with a wide variety of small torn or cut pieces of collected papers.

"Over 25 years, the small scraps and remnants remain from other works. Cut off corners are returned as collage. Some various shaped papers are in colors while others are rectangles in black and white."
$600

Anonymous Card Catalog
By Marilyn R. Rosenberg
New York: Marilyn R. Rosenberg, 1999. One-of-a-Kind.

1.8125 x 2.25" page size; 200 loose stacked numbered pages. Mixed media: ink, gouache, collage, photocopy, colored papers. Housed in 2.5 x 11.75 x 2.5" green cardboard slide file box with matching slip on lid and metal corner reinforcements.

The point is obsolescence, built into the format, the symbolic images, and the text (of which you can get only glimpses unless you read the cards in order). The references to women – aging and changing – come from folk wisdom, Betty Friedan, Amy Lowell, Anne Bradstreet and other sources.

Marilyn R. Rosenberg: "The piece is made from a variety of paper cards, some used as separators for slides (since the box was originally meant to be used as a slide file box) of colored papers and boards, ink, gouache, collage, and miscellaneous media including photocopy. The photocopies are images of brass miniatures, objects given to me by two of my aunts. Double roses, from my name, are on every card. Spread out in an infinite variety of ways, the work covers a table top. Cards can be arranged and rearranged but are numbered so they can be put back in order. Here is a reminder of the hand-held library card catalog now disappearing into virtual reality, obsolete.

"Commentary on obsolescence is in the form of images, a reminder of a language no longer used, Morse Code. Another is the society's feeling of obsolescence of old women noted in sayings and poetry.

"Drawings on both sides of each of the 200 cards. One side is numbered and has abstract imagery and photocopy images of objects and of skeletons in various poses. On the other side, women are highlighted [by textual references] as they often are in my other pieces."
$1,800