'Pictures and words seem to become the rallying points for certain assumptions. There are assumptions of truth and falsity and I guess the narratives of falsity are called fictions. I replicate certain words and watch them stray from or coincide with the notions of fact and fiction' - Kruger.
Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual
artist. Her work mostly consists of black-and-white photographs overlaid, with
red and white text that challenges the viewer. She uses humour to get across
her ideas and serious themes. The phrases often address such themes as culture,
power, identity, and sexuality. The themes
have been made into recognisable slogans over the her well known images.
The text questions the viewer about feminism and consumerism, which is
something I want to relate back to in my own work during this project.
Her images were used in Selfridges in collaboration with an advertising agency playing on the idea of consumerism in the store. Some of the phrases used were “I shop therefore I am,” and “Your body is a battleground." This project received a mixed reaction from the public, some saw this as a joke on the customers coming to spend money in the store. It is a powerful set of images, by using strong themes including, sex, racial and gender stereotypes, consumerism, corporate greed, and power. She speaks her mind through her art, and will use her art as inspiration in my won work to expressed the idea of consumerism and feminism.