After reading "How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul" and it's discussion of design and it's consequences, I decided to focus on Barbara Kruger for this past week. Graphic design is a key element in advertising, which can be problematic depending on what you're selling. Kruger's work instead of advertising, attacks the selling points of consumerist culture.Over this J-term, I got to see a few pieces by Kruger in Berlin. Best known for her biting text overlayed on black and white photographs, Kruger comments on consumerism, feminism, and identity. Kruger's educational background and work experience are from the graphic design field, and her own artwork clearly shows this with it's text dependence and arrangement.
The photographs she works with are taken from magazines, which is especially fitting since magazines are often the target of her criticism. Two phrases from Kruger's work "I'm lost without my purse" and "Buy me, I'll change your life" stuck out to me because even though they were written to highlight just how ridiculous that sentiment is, they sound far too much like actual advertisement slogans; I could see them popping up on a billboard somewhere.
More about Kruger and her work can be found here.
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