Despite lingering illness concerns and other preoccupations of our current moment, the year has still flown by. And as we get ready to replace our old calendars, other things are coming to an end as well.
This includes the immersive installation of Barbara Kruger's in the Museum of Modern Art's atrium. "Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You." is a kind of declaration that seems particularly "on brand" for 2022 and as such will close on Jan. 2.
As evident from the image above, it is a dizzying display of black-and-white text broken up only briefly by smiley faces and one face with a tongue sticking out of its mouth. Printed vinyl otherwise covers the walls and floor, and entering the space feels like walking into a verbal assault.
It is the best kind of experience from the New York and Los Angeles-based artist, who has a house in Springs -- part spectacle and part intimate takedown in direct address. On the floor you will walk on words in a type larger than human scale and what we sometimes refer to as "screaming caps" (and appropriate here): IF YOU WANT A PICTURE OF THE FUTURE, IMAGINE A BOOT STAMPING ON A HUMAN FACE, FOREVER. -- GEORGE ORWELL.
More verbiage follows everywhere. There are circular pendants made to look like distorting looking glasses, where art history's classic critical themes about the viewer's gaze are addressed, and brandished in one as a warning, or a memento mori in words: YOU. YOU ARE HERE, LOOKING THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, DARKLY. SEEING THE UNSEEN, THE INVISIBLE, THE BARELY THERE. YOU. WHOEVER YOU ARE. WHEREVER YOU ARE. ETCHED IN MEMORY. UNTIL YOU, THE LOOKER, IS GONE. UNSEEN. NO MORE. YOU TOO.
There are a few more passages similar in theme, and one to sum it all up: THIS IS ABOUT LOVING AND LONGING. ABOUT SHAMING AND HATING. ABOUT THE PROMISES OF KINDNESS AND THE PLEASURES OF DOING DAMAGE. THIS IS ABOUT CRAZY DESIRE AND HAVING A GIFT FOR CRUELTY. THIS IS ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FIGURE AND THE BODY. ABOUT THE FICKLENESS OF RENOWN. ABOUT WHO GETS WHAT AND WHO OWNS WHAT. ABOUT WHO IS REMEMBERED AND WHO IS FORGOTTEN. HERE. IN THIS PLACE. THIS IS ABOUT YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU.
MoMA notes that the artist has said, "I try to make work that joins the seductions of wishful thinking with the criticality of knowing better." The museum sums up her work here as "bold textural statements on ideas of truth, power, belief, doubt, and desire." The installation has several points of entry and viewpoints provided by the building's architecture to "set up relationships between spatial and political power, exploring the ways these relationships can expand to considerations of inclusion and exclusion, dominance and agency."
Peter Eleey, a former chief curator of MoMA PS1, and Lanka Tattersall, a curator in the museum's department of drawings and prints, organized this show along with the Art Institute of Chicago and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A publication that accompanies the exhibition has essays by Mr. Eleey, Robyn Farrell, Michael Govan, Rebecca Morse, James Rondeau, and Zoe Whitley and reprinted texts selected by Ms. Kruger.
The installation is tied to a solo exhibition of Ms. Kruger's work at the Art Institute until Jan. 24. It was previously at LACMA from March until July this year and was originally intended for MoMA's PS 1 branch in Queens, but had to be cancelled due to a scheduling conflict related to the pandemic. A mini survey of the artist's works was on view at David Zwirner's Chelsea galleries over the summer.
