Barbara Kruger

"Get Out" by Barbara Kruger

     Barbara Kruger is a feminist artist who forces you to fall into one of two categories, the victim or the victimizer. Of course, some viewers will fall in between recognizing who is the victim or the victimizer, but for the most part Kruger forces her viewers to come face to face with an awkward moment of realization that you are the victim or you are the victimizer. Using “appropriation” she creates pieces that provoke a vast variety of emotions depending on the category the viewer falls into. As mentioned in Terry Barrett’s essay, “Criticizing Photographs: An Introduction to Understanding Images”, Kruger takes an image from mass culture, whether she finds it in magazines or other resources, plays with the format until it is of her liking, and places strips of texts on the photograph. The steps Kruger takes seem simple, but any minor alteration in her piece could change the entire message she was attempting to convey, if any since she claims the interpretation rests in the audience’s hands.

     I really enjoyed Kruger’s piece, “Surveillance”, discussed in Barrett’s essay, “Criticizing Photographs: An Introduction to Understanding Images”. As mentioned in the essay, the photograph is of a man who is holding a lupe up to his eye with the word “Surveillance” in a large font in white on a black strip going in an upward diagonal across the man’s face and the words “is your busy work” in a smaller font in white on a black strip at the bottom of the piece. I enjoyed this piece because it made me feel uncomfortable. The lighting on the man’s face and the fact that you are able to see his stubble makes him seem creepy like he is actually surveilling me. I would not say that I fall into the victim or victimizing category in this instance, but I can definitely think of people who fall into both categories. Barbara Kruger is great at what she does because she causes controversy. She makes people talk about her work. After all, the best art sparks constant conversation.