NoNoseKnows (2015)

NoNoseKnows explores the mass production of cultured pearls for the luxury market, labor almost exclusively performed by women. Portions of the video were shot in Zhuji, China, home to gargantuan pearl-making facilities, but the rest was staged and recorded in New York on a custom-designed set. As with all of Rottenberg’s work, women serve as both protagonists and catalysts: the women seen here do strange things that make other strange things happen, to themselves and others, which in turn make even more strange things happen. The video as a whole is a kind of assembly line of cause and effect, reaction and response, all of which result in the production and harvesting of cultured pearls.