Our next stop was the Serpentine Gallery for the Barbara Kruger show, Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You, which I had previously seen at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021 (and here, and here). While this exhibit was necessarily much smaller than in Chicago it had also been greatly updated and made more use of video and LEDs (see a few shots below, click them to enlarge).
Our school trip to London galleries followed the Photographer’s Gallery with a visit to Gagosian to see the exhibition of Douglas Gordon: All I need is a little bit of everything. See additional images below (and click on them to enlarge).
Edinburgh, Scotland
While we were in North Berwick I thought I’d try once again to place some text into the natural environment. Once again, it didn’t really do anything for me.
“J’Existe,” which I originally imagined to be a plaint of unseen minority or immigrant populations, turns out to be a fashion brand of the artist Thierry Jaspart. We’ll be seeing that name again before we leave Belgium. I’m not sure why some names on the kiosk of artist names have been whited out. Are these the ones who have been ‘canceled’ of late?
We arrived in Plymouth and before even leaving the car park I tried one more time to rephotograph my text images on location. Still not doing anything for me. If viewing in email, click the post title to click into the images and see them larger.
Then, when we left the car park, we realised we were not in the most salubrious part of town.
While we were in Exeter I tried rephotographing my text images again. I’m not sure this worked any better than at Golden Cap. (Click on any of the pictures to see them all bigger.)
This past semester my photographic practice has been exploring the subject of inequality: wealth and income inequality as well as gender and ethnic disparities. I have been incorporating text from signs into scenes using Photoshop. For the summer, my tutor suggested placing text-based images I create into the landscape and rephotographing them. So before departing on this trip I prepared 3 images. One simply says “Broken Promises,” a famous graffito from the Bronx, another shows mathematical symbols for inequality, “<>” and “≠,” and I also abstracted a sign I saw in the car park of the Palm Springs Art Museum on a trip several years ago that simply says, “Imagine Art Here.” Then I asked Margaret to hold them for me while we were near Golden Cap. I also found places along our walks to place them in the scene. I’m not sure they’re really doing that much for me. Click any image to see them enlarged.
These large tapestries, Posh Cloths, by Grayson Perry at Victoria Milo, in London were eye-opening. I think the designs are made on a computer using graphics software, then translated to looms that weave the actual tapestry. Note the way text is woven into the images, especially in the map-like tapestries below. A definite inspiration for the text-based work I want to do on inequality. Click into any of the groups of images to see all the pictures in that group enlarged.
Here we see Barbara Kruger using my own technique – they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, though I doubt she’s ever seen my work.
more from the Barbara Kruger exhibit
