At the age of 22, Barbara Kruger was a head designer at Mademoiselle (a women's magazine first published in 1935 by Street & Smith and later acquired by Condé Nast Publications), a Condé Nast title. Over her career, she has transitioned into many roles including being a graphic designer and picture editor and learnt from a young age, the art of catching the public eye. Never attending art school, it was her professional experiences that helped Kruger understand art as her raison d’etre. 

In 1989, in support of reproductive freedom and against anti-abortion laws, Kruger crafted what is remembered as an iconic image made for the Women’s March in Washington, DC. The image titled Untitled (Your body is a battleground), was made on vinyl with photographic silkscreen printing. It comprised the title layered onto a woman’s face that was split into positive and negative exposure, an image with the primary colours: red, white and black, the only ones she has ever used in her work. Kruger’s background in advertising helped her understand how to captivate and connect with large, diverse audiences through bold fonts and by choosing certain colours. Throughout her career, Kruger continues to highlight socio-political discussions through long quotations, flashing images and audio recordings of conversations, creating almost collages of video, sound and light.

For decades, Kruger has showcased her work around the world at exhibitions such as the Borrow and Steal: Appropriation from the Collection (2022-2023) at the Museum of Fine Arts in Florida and the Political Affairs: Language Is Not Innocent (2019) at the Kunstverein in Germany. Her art has stood the test of time and now, the Serpentine Gallery brings together her legacy including works created between 1979 to 2021 to London, with the exhibition Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. Symbolic of defining moments in time around wars, women’s rights movements and technological advancements, Kruger addresses socio-political themes in her art, bringing focus on the complex histories we harbour as a society.

This exhibition includes the 2021 reworking of Untitled (Your body is a battleground). This time, it is presented not as an image but as a 17-second, single-channel video on LED panels with the sound of a large crash that plays in the background. Many of the pieces included in this exhibition are those that Kruger recently reworked, to include audio/visual techniques that have now become available for artists to readily use.

In the exhibition, the Serpentine includes work such as Pledge, Will, Vow, (1988/2020), a five-minute, three-channel video installation that was presented at the Venice Biennale in 2022, where Kruger questions the language used in the US Pledge of Allegiance, last wills and marriage vows. On three screens with red backgrounds, words appear in white, one after another. Slowly watching the words unfold one by one, grips the audience, making them contemplate the use of certain language and think about what is often omitted from these speeches.

In this installation, the word ‘richer’ in the phrase: 'I take you to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer…’ in marriage vows, changes to greed and fraud and then returns to richer. These multiple words do not fix meanings and ideas onto the vows but simply question our fixation with certain terms and explore the varied outcomes of these optimistic pledges. Here, her background as a graphic designer is evident in the way she crafts the words to appear one after another, exploring multiple different avenues in relationships. 

To further connect with the public in London, the Serpentine has also collaborated with Outernet Arts. Every Monday until April 22, hosted in the immersive space, Kruger’s video titled Silent Writings (2009/2024) plays between 6-9 pm on a loop. Immersing her audience in colour, with loud sounds including that of shattering glass and quotations by well-known writers and philosophers, at the heart of her work is a desire to remind the public to remain curious and question everything. 

To learn more about Kruger’s work and her relationship with the Serpentine, Bettina Korek, the Director of the Serpentine gives STIR an exclusive interview. Korek shares with us her relationship with the artist and its impact on her perception of the art world. 

Rhea Mathur: This marks Kruger's first exhibition in London in over 20 years. Can you tell us more about its journey to London?

Bettina Korek: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. is an adaptation of Kruger’s exhibition by the same name that originated at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Following her American tour, we’re so pleased to present this body of work in London—this is Kruger’s first solo institutional show in London in more than 20 years and a homecoming of sorts seeing as how she wrapped a room at Serpentine South in January 1994 as part of the Wall to Wall show curated by Maureen Paley.

Rhea: How do you see it fitting into the current landscape of exhibitions in London? Does it complement existing shows or bring something new to the table?

Bettina: Kruger’s medium is popular culture, which is material that everyone has access to. With this as a starting point, her work inherently brings people together through a kind of shared cultural understanding. She asks questions and raises issues that activate people on so many levels—she’s punchy and direct, yet at the same time, she often eschews saying exactly what we think she means. The work depends on having a viewer complete it—this draws people to it not only as a participatory attraction but as a demonstration of the political power of art, too.

Rhea: Could you tell us more about your connection with Kruger and what aspects of her work you find most significant?

Bettina: When I first met Barbara I was in my early 20s and this experience shaped me. I admired her so much, as I do to this day. Initially, the curator Emi Fontana introduced us, when I was working with Emi on her Women in the City (2008) group show of public artworks installed throughout LA. Later, I came to collaborate with Kruger on public art projects produced by my organisation ForYourArt—for example, wrapping buses with her work in partnership with the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education—and more recently, on the second edition of Frieze Los Angeles, in 2020. I can truthfully say that knowing Kruger has changed how I see the world. The beauty is that this incredible capability she has to do this also manifests through her art.

Rhea: In what ways does this show integrate with public spaces?

Bettina: I am proud to have facilitated several projects with Kruger in Los Angeles from wrapping school buses with her signature larger-than-life graphic texts in 2012 to staging massive billboards and murals in 2020 for the second edition of Frieze Los Angeles. This show also extends beyond gallery walls to engage Kensington Gardens and other sites around London, a TikTok effect, banners outside the gallery and taxis, building on a history of public art collaborations.

Rhea: Lastly, what is one thing that you hope visitors take away from this exhibition and its curation?

Bettina: Kruger began her career in magazines, where one important metric of success is how quickly you can grab people’s attention. She’s talked a lot about how she has incorporated formal strategies of advertising into her art practice, and in the age of social media, personal branding and frayed attention spans, now the world has caught up with her. There’s also something so incredibly real and powerful about Kruger, the way she has the confidence–confidence in herself, but also in her viewers–to approach big, complicated themes but with such openness. Her work is not about making judgements, it’s about asking questions.