Silent Writings

Barbara Kruger

Mar 4 – Apr 22, 2024

Opening:
Mar 4, 18:00 – 21:00

Every Monday
18:00 – 21:00

Outernet Arts and Serpentine continue an innovative partnership presenting a digital artwork Silent Writings by American artist Barbara Kruger that explores how we communicate and connect with each other.

In Silent Writings, 2009/2024, Barbara Kruger explores how we communicate and connect with global events and with each other. The piece weaves images and words in an attempt to engage issues of control, power and dominance. Kruger incorporates her own words alongside quotes from writers and philosophers including Aimé Césaire, Goethe, Thomas Mann and Mary Therese McCarthy. These quotes touch on themes of violence, political modes of operation and spectatorship. Kruger manipulates selected words, enlarging or removing them to highlight their meanings and create new ones. Opposing terms like contact/isolation, order/horror, stupid/clever become fluid and interchangeable.

Throughout the piece, cropped found documentary photographs of conflicts, politicians and mass media images briefly appear between sentences, serving as illustrations of the words or evidence of their relevance. As in many of her works, the artist addresses the viewers directly to make us question our beliefs, perspectives and how we perceive the world.

"I try to make work about how we are to one another, and that means how we respect one another, how we detest one another, our adorations, our contempt, the centuries of worship and subjugation, of brutality and kindness." – Barbara Kruger

About Barbara Kruger

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.

In partnership with

Serpentine Credits:

Curator: Natalia Grabowska

Creative Producer: Brittany Stewart

 
Project Credits:

Sound Design: Father

Motion Design: Kerry Akif and Chris Shone

Outernet Arts Credits:

Artistic Director: Tony Tremlett