Analytics Consent

We use analytics to understand better how people are using this site.

Permit Google Analytics?

Yes No
Skip to main content
Read page text
page 52
art Challenging Normality Barbara Kruger A SOLO EXHIBITION OF NEW AND RECENT WORK BY ACCLAIMED ARTIST, BARBARA KRUGER OPENS AT MODERN ART OXFORD THIS SUMMER, INVESTIGATING POWER IN POPULAR CULTURE TODAY. Barbara Kruger (b. 1945) requires no introduction. She was one of the most high-profile artists of the 1980s, savaging its prevailing consumer culture with her distinctive red and white slogans. Even non-art-lovers will be familiar with the snappy phraseology of some of her best-known works: “I shop therefore I am” and “Buy me. I’ll change your life” were just two pieces that were plastered across Selfridges, a temple of consumerism, during the London department store’s three-year long collaboration with the artist. After studying at Parsons The New School for Design in 1965, Kruger embarked on a career in graphic design. She later spent several years at Condé Nast, and began examining their magazines to challenge and critique the materialistic objectification of women and the emptiness of the consumerist idyll that the publications extolled. Her source photography from mid-century magazines and advertisements was overlaid with oblique type proclaiming “Money can buy you love”, “We don’t need another hero”, “You are not yourself” and, most famously, “Your body is a battleground”. Now her work is in major collections across the world and she is showing a solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford occupying a large proportion of the gallery space with a series of collages, films and installations. Head of Programme at Modern Art Oxford Sally Shaw says that, at this point in her 30-year career, Kruger’s work has become more pertinent than ever: “We are experiencing an important cultural moment: the next generation will not be able to recall a time without smartphones, the internet or other enhanced means of communication. An artist of Kruger’s calibre and longevity is perfectly placed to examine this phenomenon from the inside, employing the language and mechanics of the industry she critiques.” The crux of Kruger’s work lies in its keen criticism of our capitalist, consumerist society and the compromises we make by our own complicity in these worlds. As globalised mass media is continually evolving and our cynicism about materialism has grown since the financial crash of 2007, Kruger’s work is absolutely more relevant now than ever before. Shaw describes her as, “a propagandist in reverse” and frames her as a predictor of our current predicament: “Her works have served over the years to forecast the symptoms we now experience as a result of globalised consumerism.” For Shaw this combination of technological advances in communications, future generations’ normalising of the constant barrage of information, and the identification of how disastrous the consequences (for the economy, for society and for the environment) that the endless pursuit of “stuff” can cause, means that Kruger’s work is experiencing a new importance and cultural relevance: “Now her works will have even more weight and presence as we decide how to rectify the present situation over the course of the next few generations.” Although Kruger’s paste-ups are familiar to many, the new exhibition will utilise the potential of Modern Art Oxford’s unique space to create a new slant on her text-based art, with an immersive space in which the words and text become somewhat abstract by virtue of their sheer size. Shaw explains: “The upper gallery at Modern Art Oxford is a beautiful, almost church-like space with high vaulted ceilings. This room will be completely transformed with a new site-specific architectural text wrap unique to the show. Covering floor, walls and part of the ceiling, the installation will create an all-encompassing text enveloping the viewer.” By showcasing Kruger’s soundbites and slogans on such a large-scale, Modern Art Oxford has succeeded in cultivating a new and fresh perspective on Kruger’s three-decade practice – previous site-specific exhibitions have included commissions in parks, train stations and museums. Such monumental installations make the viewer work harder in order to realise this is not “easy” art. Shaw contrasts 52 Aesthetica
page 53
.L o n d o n M a g e r s B e r l i n t h S p r ü ) . C o u r t e s y ( L o w e r L e v e l L o b b y M u s e u m i r s h h o r n . H , 2 012 tD o u b r u g e r, B e l i e f a n d KB a r b a r a Aesthetica 53

Page Text

View plaintext

art

Challenging Normality

Barbara Kruger

A SOLO EXHIBITION OF NEW AND RECENT WORK BY ACCLAIMED ARTIST, BARBARA KRUGER OPENS AT

MODERN ART OXFORD THIS SUMMER, INVESTIGATING POWER IN POPULAR CULTURE TODAY.

Barbara Kruger (b. 1945) requires no introduction. She was one of the most high-profile artists of the 1980s, savaging its prevailing consumer culture with her distinctive red and white slogans. Even non-art-lovers will be familiar with the snappy phraseology of some of her best-known works: “I shop therefore I am” and “Buy me. I’ll change your life” were just two pieces that were plastered across Selfridges, a temple of consumerism, during the London department store’s three-year long collaboration with the artist.

After studying at Parsons The New School for Design in 1965, Kruger embarked on a career in graphic design. She later spent several years at Condé Nast, and began examining their magazines to challenge and critique the materialistic objectification of women and the emptiness of the consumerist idyll that the publications extolled. Her source photography from mid-century magazines and advertisements was overlaid with oblique type proclaiming “Money can buy you love”, “We don’t need another hero”, “You are not yourself” and, most famously, “Your body is a battleground”. Now her work is in major collections across the world and she is showing a solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford occupying a large proportion of the gallery space with a series of collages, films and installations.

Head of Programme at Modern Art Oxford Sally Shaw says that, at this point in her 30-year career, Kruger’s work has become more pertinent than ever: “We are experiencing an important cultural moment: the next generation will not be able to recall a time without smartphones, the internet or other enhanced means of communication. An artist of Kruger’s calibre and longevity is perfectly placed to examine this phenomenon from the inside, employing the language and mechanics of the industry she critiques.”

The crux of Kruger’s work lies in its keen criticism of our capitalist, consumerist society and the compromises we make by our own complicity in these worlds. As globalised mass media is continually evolving and our cynicism about materialism has grown since the financial crash of 2007, Kruger’s work is absolutely more relevant now than ever before. Shaw describes her as, “a propagandist in reverse” and frames her as a predictor of our current predicament: “Her works have served over the years to forecast the symptoms we now experience as a result of globalised consumerism.”

For Shaw this combination of technological advances in communications, future generations’ normalising of the constant barrage of information, and the identification of how disastrous the consequences (for the economy, for society and for the environment) that the endless pursuit of “stuff” can cause, means that Kruger’s work is experiencing a new importance and cultural relevance: “Now her works will have even more weight and presence as we decide how to rectify the present situation over the course of the next few generations.” Although Kruger’s paste-ups are familiar to many, the new exhibition will utilise the potential of Modern Art Oxford’s unique space to create a new slant on her text-based art, with an immersive space in which the words and text become somewhat abstract by virtue of their sheer size.

Shaw explains: “The upper gallery at Modern Art Oxford is a beautiful, almost church-like space with high vaulted ceilings. This room will be completely transformed with a new site-specific architectural text wrap unique to the show. Covering floor, walls and part of the ceiling, the installation will create an all-encompassing text enveloping the viewer.” By showcasing Kruger’s soundbites and slogans on such a large-scale, Modern Art Oxford has succeeded in cultivating a new and fresh perspective on Kruger’s three-decade practice – previous site-specific exhibitions have included commissions in parks, train stations and museums. Such monumental installations make the viewer work harder in order to realise this is not “easy” art. Shaw contrasts

52 Aesthetica

Read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content