Barbara Kruger | Surveillance Is Your Busywork

Barbara Kruger | Surveillance Is Your Busywork
Offset lithograph in colours
11 × 28 in | 27.9 × 71.1 cm
Original subway poster, c. 1980, on wove paper,
Unsigned as issued

Barbara Kruger | Surveillance Is Your Busywork

Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. As demonstrated in ‘Surveillance is Your Busywork’, Kruger’s works are characterised by her collage style that sees black and white images appropriated from billboards and magazines overlaid with captions in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed text.

‘Surveillance is Your Busywork’ is an unused subway lithograph placard, produced in the early 80s by Kruger for New York City’s Metro Transit Authority. Never before used, the piece is an unusual intact example of Kruger’s early ‘paste up’ works.

Kruger’s captions often declare their message to their viewer, even accusing and implicating them through the use of the pronouns “you”, “your”, “I”, “we”, and “they”. With further notable captions of Kruger’s including, “I shop therefore I am” and “Your body is a battleground”. Through the techniques of advertisement and mass communication, the artist seeks to address issues of language and sign to explore identity, gender and the relational other.

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her collage style that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative captions, stated in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed text. The phrases in her works often include pronouns such as “you”, “your”, “I”, “we”, and “they”, addressing cultural constructions of power, identity, consumerism, and sexuality. Kruger’s artistic mediums include photography, sculpture, graphic design, architecture, as well as video and audio installations.

Kruger lives and works in New York and Los Angeles. She is an Emerita Distinguished Professor of New Genres at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. In 2021, Kruger was included in Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 Most Influential People.

CONTEMPORARY ART 

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