The Maid
Carissa Rodriguez American
In The Maid, Carissa Rodriguez explores questions of authorship, capitalism, and the often-invisible lifespan of artworks. The work is titled after Robert Walser’s 1913 short story that chronicles a hired maid who’s lost track of a child for whom she’s responsible and desperately searches for over a decade. Rodriguez’s video focuses on Newborns, a series of sculptures made by artist Sherrie Levine in the 1990s, based on earlier works by Constantin Brancusi. Rodriguez follows the sculptures over the course of a day in New York and Los Angeles, from their settings in museums, auction houses, and private homes. The work’s meditative tone lulls the viewer into a journey across these disparate yet connected locations, implicating us as witnesses surreptitiously observing the sculptures in places that often lack a human presence.
Notably, it contrasts the varied ways we opt to live and interact with artworks: delicately handling art with gloves in a museum, or alternatively, situated informally amid family heirlooms. Ultimately Rodriguez reminds us that art—even examples of seemingly identical works— inherits deeply varied meanings through its contexts and treatments, often beyond artistic intention.
