Research- Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger is an American artist. She is best known for her powerful, eye-catching collages that mix image and text. It's why she's so relevant for my project, the combination of mixing both. Although she mainly works with found image and layers it with appropriate text, it's the collecting process that I quite like. She has a different approach to me in the sense that I think she sourced the images from elsewhere and used the text herself. I'm asking for text contributions and making the images/putting them in locations myself.

Kruger studied at the Parsons school of design, alongside Diane Arbus and persued the design route after graduating. She undertook many roles varying from graphic designer to picture editor and the combination and the background of design shine through in her work and make it more considered, in my opinion.

Another reason I find the work relevant is that she is expressing her and challenging others with the pieces she makes. A lot of them speak about feminism, consumerism, or challenge the identity of everyday people and all of them consider the viewer to think. When you see a Kruger piece, you know it's one of hers because of the distinctive, trademark block text that stands out from the found photographs she puts as the background. I'd say the thing I enjoy most about the work is that she doesn't give everything away, instead, engaging the viewer by challenging them to think about what it is she's saying and perhaps apply it to themselves or see if they can relate to it. I might be trying to achieve different things but the engaging aspect is interesting as she takes another approach to the likes of Wearing and Calle.

The piece I always think of is the one that says 'I shop therefore I am'. Whenever I hear her name, it's that image that springs to mind and has stayed with me from the first time I saw it. As a shopaholic myself, it appealed to me. The clever juxtaposition in her work is that the images she uses often illustrate the complete opposite [or sell the idea to the opposite] of what she is trying to say. Her pieces are extremely intelligent and I think at the time she was making them, they must have made waves.



The image above is my favourite of hers. Not so much for the message it conveys, though as a photographer it is very true and made me smile. But it's because it's a personal statement. The image is her own portrait and shows her own engagement with the art and a side of herself more than any of the other work does.