Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You.
American artist Barbara Kruger (b. 1945, Newark, New Jersey, USA) is widely known for her impactful work with images and words. Drawing from an early career as a graphic designer for magazines, Kruger developed an iconic visual language that frequently borrows from the techniques and aesthetics of advertising and other media. Since the 1970s, her artworks have continually explored complex mechanisms of power, gender, class, consumerism, and capital.
Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. at Serpentine South is Kruger’s first solo institutional show in London in over twenty years. It features a unique selection of installations alongside moving image works and multiple soundscapes. The exhibition is the UK premiere of Untitled (No Comment) (2020). This immersive three-channel video installation explores contemporary modes of creating and consuming content online. In the work, Kruger combines text, audio clips, and a barrage of found images and memes, ranging from blurred-out selfies to animated photos of cats.
The exhibition also features recent video reconfigurations – or, as the artist calls them, replays – of several of Kruger’s most iconic pieces from the 1980s, including Untitled (I shop therefore I am) (1987) and Untitled (Your body is a battleground) (1989). Over decades, Kruger has presented her work across various spaces and forms, including on buildings, billboards, hoardings, buses, and skate parks. For this exhibition, the artist has adapted works, which were recently presented at museums in the United States, to specific locations within Serpentine, both indoors and outdoors.
Please be advised, this exhibition contains works with strong language, nudity, flashing images and sudden loud noises. For more information, please contact information@serpentinegalleries.org.
A special Limited Edition has been released on the occasion of the exhibition Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. at Serpentine. Discover the edition and further information here.
Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. at Serpentine is curated by the artist in close collaboration with Natalia Grabowska, Curator at Large, Architecture and Site-specific Projects.
Produced by:
Brittany Stewart, Creative Producer
Mike Gaughan, Gallery Manager
Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. is an adaptation of the exhibition organised by the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. was on view at the Art Institute of Chicago from September 19, 2021 to January 24, 2022, and was co-organised by James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director, and Robyn Farrell, Senior Curator at the Kitchen and former Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. At LACMA, the exhibition was presented March 20, 2022 to July 17, 2022 and was organised by Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, and Rebecca Morse, Curator, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department. The installation at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, was on view from July 18, 2022 to January 2, 2023 and was organised by Peter Eleey, former Chief Curator, MoMA PS1, and Lanka Tattersall, Laurenz Foundation Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints.
