This exhibition at MoMA was another great opportunity for her to explore how her art is located and interacts with the space and the point of view, hence triggering meanings between her design and architecture. The large scale of the texts surrounds the visitors who wander around this maze of giant letters, words, sentences, paragraphs. Ultimately, with a dash of irony and humor, the artist visualizes the interaction between the visitor and the message. This is seen for instance in the deliberate use of pronouns, the “You” and “I”, speaking to the visitor directly. “THIS IS ABOUT THE YOU NOT I”, “WHOEVER YOU ARE WHEREVER YOU ARE”, “FOR ME TO BECOME YOU”. She also likes to use repetitions, which visually creates a pattern with growing irony: “WAR TIME, WAR CRIME, GANG WAR; COLD WAR”, or ”YOU WANT IT; YOU BUY; YOU FORGET IT”.

Installation view of Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You., on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York from July 16, 2022 – January 2, 2023. Photo: Emile Askey

As previously explained, there exist many connections between poetry, politics and design in Kruger’s work. A good example of this is to come to the top atrium level of the Museum where you can see all the text on the main ground floor at once: “IF YOU WANT A PICTURE OF THE FUTURE, IMAGINE A BOOT STAMPING ON A HUMAN FACE – FOR EVER”, while thousands of visitors’ boots wander around stepping on the message. The quote is taken from the book ‘1984’ by George Orwell, published in 1949, a dystopian novel about a totalitarian world where every aspect of human life is controlled. Kruger seems to be humorously suggesting that this dreaded future is here and now.

Installation view of Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You., on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York from July 16, 2022 – January 2, 2023. Photo: Emile Askey

All in all, Barbara Kruger makes a statement about the individual and we can all have a different point of view or a different experience about anything: one single unique thing but different experiences. Her formula combining poetry, politics, and advertising is yet more powerful in the internet era combining vernacular images with pithy messages adding to the importance of modern social issues such as misogyny, abuse of power, consumerism and the blurring of identity.

Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You, is organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Barbara Kruger “Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You”
Date: July 16th, 2022 – January 2nd, 2023
Opening Hours: 10:30 – 17:30
Place: The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA)
Address: 11 West 53 Street, New York
Tel: +1 (212) 708-9400
https://www.moma.org