Barbara Kruger Interview Response

Many people criticize society silently. They think about the struggles of control and power found throughout the world, yet refuse to act. After reading this interview with Barbara Kruger, I view her as an interesting visual artist that acts as a watchdog. She brings important issues to light. Barbara's work focuses on the kindness and brutality found in social life. People receive images and sounds, but sometimes we forget to consider the meaning behind them. The work done by Barbara forces its viewer to think more about the message of the visual or design. She plays with the many possibilities of meanings. Each viewer will react differently to each image or text. This allows her work to reach out and touch the mind of its audience. One of Barbara's major issues in her work deals with power. This could be anything from personal, political, persuasive, or advertising power. She views power as the most free-flowing element in society which I thought was an important point. Our lives are shaped by many different powers around us. Every social situation is full with different power forces. Our own personal power shapes out morals and beliefs, while persuasive powers give us ideas and opinions. Power determines what our life will feel like. Speaking of life, during the interview Barbara talks about what it means to live a life. Who we are, and the work that we make is a projection of where we were born. Our upbringing along with our color, sex, class, and country is a reflection of ourselves and the work/art we produce. I think this is true. Our early years shape how we will act and how we will think for the rest of our lives. These years are the basic foundations for our personal identity and drastically influence our work. Barbara always wanted her audience to sense life in her work. She wanted them to feel the good and bad emotions found in life. The article then delves into the world of media and its heavy influence. Barbara talks about the good and bad involved in the media. How representations of glamour and expenditure parade on and on in every issue of a magazine. How gossip brings celebrities down to a human level, and how public talk shows push the public into political discourse which may not be necessary, but allows for debate and introduction of new opinions and ideas. One last interesting point of the article focused on new people breaking into the art world. Barbara talks about how the art world was dominated by men, but over time women and people of race around the world joined in. This opened up new stories that had not yet been told. I thought this was cool. New people entering into art brings in completely new perspectives on life. New stories, new cultures, new everything. I think this not only expands the world of art, but also enhances the connection art has with people along with life in general.