BARBARA KRUGER PATRICIA L BOYD L PATRICIA MODERN ART OXFORD - - Revolution Urban David Harvey David BARBARA KRUGER Paste-ups the to City the to Right the From Cities: Rebel from Extract 28 June - 31 August This is most evident in Kruger’s careful skewing interests. profit-maximizing private by appropriated group creates, the more likely it is to be raided and and raided be to is it likely more the creates, group of familiar idioms to generate aphorisms, which materialism. and value of conceptions This exhibition presents a selection of work by times. The better the common qualities a social social a qualities common the better The times. range from the metaphysical to more overtly contemporary about questions challenging poses renowned American conceptual artist, designer the true tragedy of the urban commons for our our for commons urban the of tragedy true the political agitprop. Examples of this can be found too she works, text and installations her in media and writer Barbara Kruger (b. Newark, New Jersey, This is, surely, a far better tale by which to explicate explicate to which by tale better far a surely, is, This in Kruger’s handmade paste-up works such as mass of language the utilises Kruger While Galleries. 1945). Untitled (Talk is cheap) (1985) and Untitled (You Upper our in exhibition Kruger’s Barbara in SoHo district. SoHo The vitality and range of Kruger’s unique oeuvre delight in the loss of others) (1982) which are on explored concerns the with resonates work and live York City, and it was also what destroyed that city’s city’s that destroyed what also was it and City, York will be explored in this presentation which display in the Middle Gallery. we which in spaces everyday the of critique Boyd’s comprises a site-specific text installation, multi- New in DUMBO and Willamsburg or Hamburg, of like Christiania in Copenhagen, the St. Pauli districts districts Pauli St. the Copenhagen, in Christiania like Twelve York. New in space project a channel video installation and a selection of This is the fate that again and again threatens places places threatens again and again that fate the is This collages. Kruger’s art functions as a site of resistance, Surface, Work Primary of invitation the at Brooklyn, meant devitalisation, according to local opinion. opinion. local to according devitalisation, meant positing a new perspective and refuting normative Heights, Crown in shelf a on exhibited title, same so debased as to be unrecognisable. Revitalisation Revitalisation unrecognisable. be to as debased so follows on from a previous project of the the of project previous a from on follows Background to Barbara Kruger narratives about how we should look, act or think. Metrics Known for her dramatic juxtapositions of text and This is especially evident in Twelve (2004), a multi- becomes itself common the but taxes), property culture. image, Kruger’s bold visual language originated channel video installation on view in the Piper and rents rising by out forced being (often created art that became important for late-twentieth century century late-twentieth for important became that art in her background as a graphic designer in New Gallery. In this rare film work, twelve conversations had they which common that of dispossessed who generated the very idea of a ‘process’-based ‘process’-based a of idea very the generated who York, where she worked for magazines like - in the mode of the soap opera or chat show - been residents original the have only not work, Manhattan that once housed some of the artists artists the of some housed once that Manhattan Mademoiselle in the late 1960s. This commercial play out across four screens. The protagonists’ destructive its done has market the time the By training developed her fluency in arranging words unspoken thoughts appear in text at the bottom of downtown in spaces loft of redevelopment the multicultural, street-lively, and diverse. diverse. and street-lively, multicultural, and images to maximum effect. Later Kruger the picture, echoing the information overload of 24- as such elsewhere, processes gentrification by “character” of their neighborhood to the wealthy as as wealthy the to neighborhood their of “character” began combining original writing with her own hour news channels. In this work Kruger plays with informed also is It lifestyles. bohemian past of image (and taxes) rising as real estate agents market the the market agents estate real as rising taxes) (and photographs, eventually developing her signature televisual conventions to destabilise meaning and the in constructed is environments sanitised newly gentrification may suddenly find its property prices prices property its find suddenly may gentrification style of bold lettering overlaid onto cropped or challenge our expectations of cohesive narrative. these in activities leisure and work of blending The diversity in its neighborhood and protect against against protect and neighborhood its in diversity blown-up images (often depicting human faces workforce. wireless mobile, new a accommodating community group that struggles to maintain ethnic ethnic maintain to struggles that group community and bodies), along with her distinctive black, red Untitled (Titled) 2014 - Upper Gallery cafes and offices by replaced been have areas heel at through the extraction of land and property rents. A A rents. property and land of extraction the through and white palette. Kruger’s investigation of rhetoric is further down formerly where centres, city many in apparent appropriated in urban contexts is, of course, course, of is, contexts urban in appropriated intensified by the work’s impactful graphic style of is transition This gentrification. of process social a The primary means by which ‘the common’ is is common’ ‘the which by means primary The Ideas and Concepts which the artist says, “I attempt to investigate the and process artistic an both – process a to witness Kruger’s work is primarily concerned with the complex inter-relationships between power and bear can building a of materials the that idea the of common property resources? resources? property common of workings of power in contemporary life. Through society, but as for the visual presentation itself, with labour artistic of image an presents exhibition and debates concerning the creation and utilisation utilisation and creation the concerning debates and ironic appropriation of text and imagery, she I try to avoid a high degree of difficulty. I would The us. around designed world the in present forces how does this relate to the long history of arguments arguments of history long the to relate this does how addresses the latent political and social social and political latent the addresses deploys the visual strategies of mass media in like for people to be drawn directly in the work.” Metrics order to subvert the often manipulative logic at This has been further developed in a brand new And mean? possibly it could what but intriguing, the right to the city, the idea sounds catchy and and catchy sounds idea the city, the to right the work in the language of advertising, television, text work made specifically for Modern Art Oxford occupants. studio’s the anti-capitalist critique and political activism. Like Like activism. political and critique anti-capitalist films and websites. Kruger’s use of both declarative which covers the walls and floor of the Upper by time over out carried processes artistic various common,” they suggest this as an entry point for for point entry an as this suggest they common,” statements and the imperative, what she terms Gallery. This immersive environment demands the by generated marks with engrained are they metropolis as a factory for the production of the the of production the for factory a as metropolis ‘direct address’, is a consistent tactic throughout that the viewer be activated and adopt multiple dirt; and stains pockmarks, spills, paint of layers When theorists argue that we should view “the “the view should we that argue theorists When her work. This mode of address is used not only to standpoints in order to apprehend the meaning of congealed with thick are surfaces Their students. and attendant activities of office workers, freelancers freelancers workers, office of activities attendant grab the viewer’s attention but also to implicate us the words pasted across the walls. While previous interests. class capitalist by dominated and shelving that support the bodies, objects and and objects bodies, the support that shelving and in the work’s content, forcing us to confront and installations have focused on specific issues, the not if influenced process urban an within commons) visually and structurally resemble the tables, chairs, chairs, tables, the resemble structurally and visually question familiar orthodoxies. installation at Modern Art Oxford presents a more new (a relations social of forms new inhibit or build Designed to be load-bearing, the sculptures both both sculptures the load-bearing, be to Designed philosophical enquiry in which each viewer cannot to potential the upon particular in and general, in The artist has described her interest in popular fail to be implicated. life urban of qualities the upon surveillance and culture, citing influences such as film, websites, sourced. are they which from privatisations, enclosures, spatial controls, policing, policing, controls, spatial enclosures, privatisations, magazines and reality television as a useful This exhibition at Modern Art Oxford presents the businesses