The directness and validity of Barbara Kruger’s social comment in her work are traits I aspire to; she understands the need to engage the viewer immediately through popular image. Her success in doing this adds gravitas to the messages she is conveying, concerning the veneration of popular culture, idealised lifestyles and the way women are in many cases led to emulate the hollow stereotype they are continually exposed to.
Kruger’s own experience within commercial art and magazine publishing mean she is able to employ the strategies of the mass media within her style of working; using a limited palette, simple photography and text her art resembles a satirical magazine or poster. Consequently Kruger’s work is saturated with black humour and irony, the realisation on her part that glamour and simplicity in message are the tools that have lead us to our worship of all things material, perhaps dissuade her from more ambiguous conceptual art that would limit her appeal. My own print uses a similarly limited palette and reflects commercial art in the form of the poster or advertisement. However, I have added my own illustrations and comment around the print, the halo surrounding the head designed to highlight the veneration of women that has taken place throughout history with especial reference to the Virgin Mary as an icon of purity and service to God (could this in reference to all women be service to men in general?).
Feminism is the underlying theme, “Who’s the fairest of them all” is a prime example of Kruger exposing the negative connotations of vanity and competition between women that coincide with traditional “fairytale” narratives. The identity of the woman who stares at her reflection is being decided (in the case of who’s the fairest) by an object (the mirror) does this suggest that even objects in the scenario of a fairytale take on more control over the outcome of a woman’s life than herself? and that this playing out of scenes is overall for the benefit of the man (handsome prince).
Kruger, therefore manages to reference shallow pop culture whilst exploring emotional depths. I have attempted to emulate this through my own prints. The appeal of photography and fashion photography in particular seem to be a starting point for Kruger, and I in reference to this started off in a similar way using imagery from a 1940s magazine. Like Kruger I wanted to suggest the pressure of glamour and idealised female identity and the changing roles of women through the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. Whilst the media portray the relative success of feminism, I feel that women’s identity is now a complex and confused one; that means thinking women want to uphold the ideologies of feminism whilst retaining the aesthetic glamour of a more traditional female image. My print seems to question how this dichotomy works when it comes to the individual.
Kruger’s own experience within commercial art and magazine publishing mean she is able to employ the strategies of the mass media within her style of working; using a limited palette, simple photography and text her art resembles a satirical magazine or poster. Consequently Kruger’s work is saturated with black humour and irony, the realisation on her part that glamour and simplicity in message are the tools that have lead us to our worship of all things material, perhaps dissuade her from more ambiguous conceptual art that would limit her appeal. My own print uses a similarly limited palette and reflects commercial art in the form of the poster or advertisement. However, I have added my own illustrations and comment around the print, the halo surrounding the head designed to highlight the veneration of women that has taken place throughout history with especial reference to the Virgin Mary as an icon of purity and service to God (could this in reference to all women be service to men in general?).
Feminism is the underlying theme, “Who’s the fairest of them all” is a prime example of Kruger exposing the negative connotations of vanity and competition between women that coincide with traditional “fairytale” narratives. The identity of the woman who stares at her reflection is being decided (in the case of who’s the fairest) by an object (the mirror) does this suggest that even objects in the scenario of a fairytale take on more control over the outcome of a woman’s life than herself? and that this playing out of scenes is overall for the benefit of the man (handsome prince).
Kruger, therefore manages to reference shallow pop culture whilst exploring emotional depths. I have attempted to emulate this through my own prints. The appeal of photography and fashion photography in particular seem to be a starting point for Kruger, and I in reference to this started off in a similar way using imagery from a 1940s magazine. Like Kruger I wanted to suggest the pressure of glamour and idealised female identity and the changing roles of women through the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. Whilst the media portray the relative success of feminism, I feel that women’s identity is now a complex and confused one; that means thinking women want to uphold the ideologies of feminism whilst retaining the aesthetic glamour of a more traditional female image. My print seems to question how this dichotomy works when it comes to the individual.
Alex Talbott
Andrew Vass
Andrew Vass
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