Barbara Kruger is an American artist who explores the pervasive power of language and imagery within the contemporary spectacle of mass media to question the systems of power that shape everyday life. Born in 1945, Kruger grew up during the Golden Age of American advertising, an era that deeply informed her five-decade-long career. Kruger’s characteristic collages combine texts and imagery found in magazines, television and newspapers. Continuously challenging the way language is used in politics, advertising and media, Kruger produces bold statements and slogans that often speak in personal pronouns, such as “I”, “You”, and “We”, directly implicating the viewer in her work.
Untitled (You Are Not Yourself) (1983) is a notable example of Kruger’s photographic collages. The piece depicts a woman’s face reflected in a shattered mirror, overlaid with the stark phrase, “You are not yourself.” Interpreted through the feminist lens and referencing Simone De Beauvoir’s Second Sex, the work speaks to the fragmented role of women in society, subjected to imposed standards, expectations, assumptions, and roles. In the spectacle-driven culture, the self becomes trapped between external demands and inner conflict.
The small-sized “not” that interrupts “you are yourself” carries a sinister weight; the illusion of wholeness is shattered, just like the mirror. The woman, picking up a fragment, sees only a piece of herself. Questions of who is “you” in “you are not yourself”, and who is the one posing the questions, are central to this piece. The answers lie in the viewer’s interpretation, a process that is itself fundamental to Kruger’s work.
