0:00:17.520,0:00:22.020 ["Barbara Kruger: Part of the Discourse"] 0:00:26.420,0:00:29.520 How come any piece of canvas[br]with pigment on it 0:00:29.520,0:00:30.660 gets to be called art? 0:00:32.760,0:00:35.660 There are so many ways of making art, 0:00:36.760,0:00:40.580 some of them more available[br]to a general public than others. 0:00:42.660,0:00:45.260 I remember going to galleries[br]when I was young-- 0:00:45.260,0:00:46.820 totally intimidated! 0:00:47.640,0:00:50.420 Certain works have to be decoded. 0:00:51.240,0:00:55.239 I think the availability of my work[br]was important to me, 0:00:55.239,0:00:58.670 because I was that viewer[br]who didn’t understand-- 0:00:58.670,0:01:00.300 who didn’t know the codes. 0:01:15.240,0:01:17.140 Performa approached me, 0:01:17.140,0:01:19.729 and the skatepark came up in conversation. 0:01:19.729,0:01:22.200 I just go, "Oh that would be so cool." 0:01:23.000,0:01:24.079 "Money talks." 0:01:24.620,0:01:25.680 "Whose values?" 0:01:30.180,0:01:32.280 These are just ideas in the air, 0:01:32.300,0:01:35.200 and questions that we ask sometimes-- 0:01:37.280,0:01:40.100 and questions that we don’t ask[br]but should ask. 0:01:44.440,0:01:46.409 I grew up in Newark, New Jersey. 0:01:46.409,0:01:48.270 My mother and my father, 0:01:48.270,0:01:50.660 neither of them have college degrees. 0:01:51.960,0:01:53.980 We lived in a three-room apartment 0:01:53.980,0:01:55.360 and I slept in the living room. 0:01:57.060,0:02:01.770 I was always very aware of how[br]where we’re born, 0:02:01.770,0:02:04.540 what we are given,[br]and what is withheld from us 0:02:04.540,0:02:06.960 determines who we can be in the world. 0:02:08.360,0:02:10.120 I came to New York. 0:02:10.120,0:02:12.040 Went to Parson’s for a year. 0:02:12.520,0:02:14.880 Started working as a billing clerk 0:02:15.520,0:02:18.060 and then a telephone operator. 0:02:19.200,0:02:21.500 Living in Newark and later New York, 0:02:21.519,0:02:24.360 maybe you didn’t read the tabloids[br]but you saw them everyday 0:02:24.360,0:02:27.049 in the subway and everywhere. 0:02:27.049,0:02:30.260 All of a sudden,[br]I heard there were jobs at Condé Nast. 0:02:30.260,0:02:31.409 I was lucky-- 0:02:31.409,0:02:34.540 I got hired as a second designer. 0:02:34.970,0:02:36.920 If you didn’t get people[br]to look at those pages, 0:02:36.920,0:02:37.800 you were fired. 0:02:38.250,0:02:39.260 Cropping pictures. 0:02:39.260,0:02:40.520 Choosing fonts. 0:02:41.400,0:02:44.320 When I first started I thought,[br]"Oh I want to be art director," 0:02:44.320,0:02:46.020 but it was a different world. 0:02:46.540,0:02:49.880 I was like a chimney sweep[br]compared to the other people who worked there. 0:02:50.800,0:02:52.140 I really took time off 0:02:52.140,0:02:56.200 and tried to figure out[br]what it might mean to call myself an artist. 0:02:57.200,0:02:58.700 I remember saying to people, 0:02:58.709,0:03:02.829 "Can I just be an artist by working with[br]pasteup and magic marker?" 0:03:02.829,0:03:04.260 "No, you can’t do that." 0:03:04.760,0:03:08.080 I realized I could use the fluencies[br]as a designer 0:03:08.080,0:03:09.440 to make my work. 0:03:10.510,0:03:13.200 I like fonts that cut through the grease-- 0:03:13.200,0:03:17.400 the, sort of, clarity[br]of those sans serif fonts. 0:03:19.220,0:03:22.420 I felt that red capture one’s attention. 0:03:24.600,0:03:27.820 In most cases, I could not afford to[br]print these images in color. 0:03:28.660,0:03:32.380 I used to go to used bookstores[br]and find old magazines, 0:03:32.380,0:03:34.280 and I converted them to black and white. 0:03:35.620,0:03:39.300 For us, in 1981, '83, 0:03:39.300,0:03:42.799 showing your work was about[br]being a part of the discourse. 0:03:43.160,0:03:47.040 When my peer group first started being discussed, 0:03:47.049,0:03:48.650 and our work was being sold, 0:03:48.650,0:03:54.920 I thought, "Well if my work is developing[br]this commodity status, I had to address it." 0:03:59.680,0:04:02.860 Issues about power, value, 0:04:02.860,0:04:04.920 unfortunately do not grow old. 0:04:18.840,0:04:20.820 Architecture is my first love. 0:04:21.320,0:04:23.600 I just spatialize ideas. 0:04:29.000,0:04:31.380 I know what areas to engage 0:04:31.380,0:04:35.480 to activate a space[br]with images and with text. 0:04:42.440,0:04:43.320 "Think like us." 0:04:43.320,0:04:45.240 "Hate like us."[br]"Fear like us." 0:04:45.320,0:04:47.400 I want my work to create commentary. 0:04:47.400,0:04:49.140 [PROTESTOR][br]--Right to life, your name’s a lie, 0:04:49.140,0:04:50.600 --you don’t care if women die. 0:04:52.840,0:04:56.700 [KRUGER] I made "Your body is a battleground"[br]to get people to go to the march. 0:04:56.700,0:04:58.620 This was for women’s reproductive rights. 0:04:59.700,0:05:03.960 I remember calling Planned Parenthood[br]and offering my services, 0:05:03.960,0:05:06.240 and they didn’t know who the eff I was. 0:05:06.520,0:05:09.380 They said, well they were[br]working with an advertising agency. 0:05:09.380,0:05:10.560 Oh okay, alright. 0:05:11.640,0:05:14.820 So I used this printer named Quirky. 0:05:15.500,0:05:17.860 I used to print all these posters with him. 0:05:19.600,0:05:22.260 I went out at one or two in the morning 0:05:22.260,0:05:25.060 and put these posters up all over town. 0:05:29.800,0:05:31.600 Well, of course I’m a feminist. 0:05:32.340,0:05:38.440 But I have never been able to consider[br]gender or sexuality apart from class-- 0:05:38.440,0:05:41.440 and never thought of class apart from race. 0:05:42.180,0:05:44.560 Something to really think about 0:05:44.560,0:05:48.390 is what makes us who we are[br]in the world that we live in, 0:05:48.390,0:05:51.520 and how culture constructs and contains us. 0:05:52.240,0:05:54.960 There are stereotypes of the artist 0:05:54.960,0:05:57.040 or of the musician. 0:05:57.560,0:05:59.860 Those are the kinder stereotypes. 0:06:04.600,0:06:07.620 People ask me all the time,[br]can they come to my studio? 0:06:07.620,0:06:10.140 And I say, do you want me to put a beret on 0:06:10.140,0:06:12.000 and you can photograph me with a big table? 0:06:12.000,0:06:13.380 I said, no--[br]no. 0:06:13.380,0:06:15.620 I just don’t want to be that person. 0:06:20.920,0:06:23.600 There’s enough visual record of me. 0:06:24.040,0:06:26.120 You don’t need a million pictures. 0:06:27.500,0:06:30.420 What it means[br]to point a camera at another person, 0:06:30.420,0:06:32.800 I think that there’s a brutality about that. 0:06:45.020,0:06:45.740 "You." 0:06:47.660,0:06:50.960 "You know that women have served[br]all these centuries" 0:06:50.960,0:06:54.940 "as looking glasses possessing the magic[br]and delicious power" 0:06:54.940,0:06:59.650 "of reflecting the figure of man at twice[br]its natural size." 0:07:00.200,0:07:01.640 It’s a Virginia Woolf quote. 0:07:04.620,0:07:06.120 I just had to use that.