Immersive Kruger

 

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Forever), 2017. Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul

LACMA's new Barbara Kruger show is not a dutiful assembly of the artist's greatest silkscreen-on-vinyl hits. Instead Kruger has taken the occasion to reprise earlier works and themes in room-size installations and videos. As the pop-up side of the museum biz would have it, this is the Immersive Barbara Kruger Experience. 

That's not all bad. Kruger's room-sized vinyl text wraps, such as Untitled (Forever) and the BCAM elevator, include some of her most powerful pieces. It's the artist herself who's doing the immersing, so even when things don't quite gel, they're interesting. (Vincent and Frida were not available for their pop-ups.) 

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (That's the way we do it), 2011

Like the commercial attractions, the exhibition (co-organized with the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art) is about the artist's brand as much as her oeuvre. Some of Kruger's signature pieces are present only in the form of animated jigsaw puzzles. (That doesn't make any more sense in person.) The dual-wall Untitled (Selfie), created for the show, is presented as a backdrop for visitor photos. The show's organizers aren't writing off the Petersen Automotive demographic either, with a Kruger-wrapped Hyundai IONIQ 5 parked on the plaza outside. The Korean automaker is a corporate sponsor.

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Selfie), 2021

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Car), 2022

Barbara Kruger, Justice, 1997

The exhibition opens with its only sculpture, Untitled (Justice), a painted fiberglass effigy of J. Edgar Hoover kissing Roy Cohn in drag. It's one of a group of 1990s sculptures rethinking the role of monuments. That topical theme must explain its prominence here, but the cringey humor/shock value assigned to the figures' homosexuality has not aged as well.

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (No Comment), 2020

I was more taken by a 2020 video that segues unexpectedly to hair braiding, making wordless actions into counterintuitive poetry.

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Shafted), 2008. LACMA

Despite its art-and-technology chops, LACMA has often been jinxed when it comes to tech-heavy art. On the show's opening day, Kruger's elevator wrap (Untitled, [Shafted], 2008) was out of service. The BCAM elevator has been mechanically troubled since day one. 

"Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You" runs at LACMA through July 7, 2022. 

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Too big to fail), 2012. Collection of Liz and Eric Lefkofsky

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Why Doesn't God Destroy Satan?), 1994. S.E.A. family, Los Angeles