Statement of Work

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Rosenthal’s work examines the strategies of how we perform—the systems of control we establish and the way we negotiate our psychological, tangible and virtual positions. He questions the emphasis placed on physical experiences as a measure of authenticity or intimacy in an age where the boundaries between physical reality and the virtual become nearly indistinguishable. Employing broader themes such as militarism, religion, queer sexuality, and technology, he challenges the changing condition of bodies and psyches as they collide within these dysfunctional atmospheres. To probe these questions, Rosenthal often creates large scale, multi-screen video installations that oscillate between television monitors, electronic “warning signs,” and large-scale projections with intensely frenetic color, pattern, and sound.

At the core of his current research is an exploration of a new kind of queer “technosexuality.” The work he is producing questions the identity/experience in which the supremacy of physical body-to-body contact, virtual sexualities, and hybrid “techno-body sexuality” exists along a continuum of experience. In his most recent projects, virtual erotic situations ignore the role of genitalia in favor of metaphors for penetration via USB ports implanted in skins of invented characters. Hand and finger images perform the strange “stroking” of body-like images on the screen.

While his primary discipline is in video and other new media, his practice is interdisciplinary, and rapidly traverses disciplines within the field of visual art including sculpture, installation, performance, and drawing.