BARBARA KRUGER Another artist who has examined the
male gaze and the culturally constructed notion of gender in her art
is Barbara Kruger(b. 1945). Kruger’s work explores the strategies
and techniques of contemporary mass media and draws on her early
training as a graphic designer who contributed to Mademoiselle
magazine.Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face;FIG. 36-36)
incorporates layout techniques the mass media use to sell consumer
goods. Although Kruger favored the reassuringly familiar format
and look of advertising, her goal was to subvert the typical use of
such imagery. Rather, she aimed to expose the deceptiveness of the
media messages the viewer complacently absorbs. Kruger wanted
to undermine the myths—particularly those about women—the
media constantly reinforce. Her huge (often 4 by 6 feet) word-and-
photograph collages challenge the cultural attitudes embedded in
commercial advertising.
In Your Gaze,Kruger overlaid a photograph of a classically beau-
tiful sculpted head of a woman with a vertical row of text composed
of eight words. The words cannot be taken in with a single glance,
and reading them is a staccato exercise, with an overlaid cumulative
quality that delays understanding and intensifies the meaning
(rather like reading a series of roadside billboards from a speeding
car). Kruger’s use of text in her work is significant. Many cultural
theorists have asserted that language is one of the most powerful ve-
hicles for internalizing stereotypes and conditioned roles.ANA MENDIETACuban-born artist Ana Mendieta(1948–1985),
like Sherman, used her body as a component in her artworks. Al-
though gender issues concerned her, Mendieta’s art also dealt with
issues of spirituality and cultural heritage. The artist’s best-known
series,Silueta (Silhouettes), consists of approximately 200 earth/
body works completed between 1973 and 1980. These works repre-
sented Mendieta’s attempt to carry on, as she described, “a dialogue
between the landscape and the female body (based on my own sil-
houette).”^23
Flowers on Body (FIG. 36-37) is a documentary photograph of
the first of the earth/body sculptures in the Silueta series. In this
work, Mendieta appears covered with flowers in an earthen, womb-
like cavity. Executed at El Yagul, a Mexican archaeological site, the
work speaks to the issues of birth and death, the female experience
of childbirth, and the human connection to the earth. Objects and
locations from nature play an important role in Mendieta’s art. She
explained the centrality of this connection to nature:
I believe this has been a direct result of my having been torn from
my homeland during my adolescence. I am overwhelmed by the992 Chapter 36 EUROPE AND AMERICA AFTER 194536-36Barbara Kruger,Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My
Face), 1981. Photograph, red painted frame, 4 7 3 5 . Courtesy
Mary Boone Gallery, New York.
Kruger, like Sherman, has explored the male gaze in her art. Using
the layout techniques of mass media, she constructed this word-and-
photograph collage to challenge culturally constructed notions of gender.36-37Ana Mendieta,Flowers on Body,1973. Color photograph of
earth/body work with flowers, executed at El Yagul, Mexico. Courtesy
of the Estate of Ana Mendieta and Galerie Lelong, New York.
In this earth/body sculpture, Mendieta appears covered with flowers
in a womblike cavity to address issues of birth and death as well as the
human connection to the earth.1 ft.