Barbara Kruger has long been lauded as one of the most transformative artists of our time. Borrowing from the language of advertising, magazines, and graphic design, she creates collages that intertwine themes of gender, power, class, and capital. Now, for the first time in 23 years, Kruger’s work returns to London in the form of a solo institutional exhibition that transcends gallery walls.
LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 31: General view at the private view of “Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You” at The Serpentine Gallery on January 31, 2024 in London, England. Pic Credit: Jed Cullen/Dave Benett
Barbara Kruger Takes Over The Serpentine and London at Large
“Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You” is a sprawling, imposing selection of installations, moving image works, and soundscapes. The exhibition has taken over the walls of the Serpentine South; it has also taken over London. Aside from the pieces that decorate the gallery both indoors and outdoors, Kruger’s works are plastered across the doors of electric taxis and on large-scale, wraparound screens at Outernet Arts.
With this series of titillating new works, Kruger reanimates some of her previous pieces with puzzles, aerosols, and other distortions. The artist has said that her art “is about how we are to one another,” and with this exhibition, she continues to build on her decades-long commentary on living in our times. One video, Untitled (I shop therefore I am) (1987/2019), turns Descartes’s famous maxim on its head. The screen flickers from “I need therefore I shop” to “I sext therefore I am,” uniting existentialism with consumerism with the provocative flashiness that characterizes Kruger’s work.
“It would be great if my work became archaic, if the issues that they try to present, the commentary that I’m trying to suggest was no longer pertinent. Unfortunately, that is not the case at this point.” — Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You.,(Installation view, 1 February – 17 March 2024, Serpentine South) Photo: George Darrell
“Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You” also marks the UK premiere of Untitled (No Comment) (2020), an immersive three-hour video installation in which short snippets of footage found on social media are interspersed with questions, statements, and quotes by French philosopher and writer Voltaire and American rapper Kendrick Lamar. There are clips of everything from hairstyle tutorials and blurred selfies to animated cats, emphasizing our era’s short attention span while critiquing the culture at large.
Kruger said of this exhibit, “It would be great if my work became archaic, if the issues that they try to present, the commentary that I’m trying to suggest was no longer pertinent. Unfortunately, that is not the case at this point.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 31: Taxi at the private view of “Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You” at The Serpentine Gallery on January 31, 2024 in London, England. Pic Credit: Jed Cullen/Dave Benett
“Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You” at Serpentine South in London from February 1 to March 17.
