← Items Overview
Item: We Are Not What We Seem
1988
Collage, 276 x 243 cm.
Materials: screen print, vinyl, chassis
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp / Collection Flemish Community (Inv. no. BK5859_M99).
We Are Not What We Seem is created by American conceptual artist and designer Barbara Kruger who often places her critical messages on sexual, social, and political issues inside the alluring and familiar formats of commercial visual languages.
The artwork presents an image of an emancipating woman who is ready to fight for the perception of herself in others’ eyes. Despite the laconic poster form of the piece, the message written in the collage remains unclear: whom is she defending except herself: who are ‘we’? How are ‘they’ seen and how should ‘they’ be seen? Is the viewer a part of ‘them’ or is the viewer in the confronted position of referent?
The ambiguity of senses collapses in the simplicity of the media chosen by the artist. Now the responsibility of the self-identification and positioning in the conflict is on the viewer. Living in the era of fake news and constant media manipulation it seems like there is no way to surrender to digital nonsense consuming everyone inside and constant critical analysis could be one of the resistant tools.
Events
View all-
EXTRA MUROS: Geel – Middl...
15 September 2018 - 04 November 2018.
Exhibition project Middle Gate II – The Story of Dymphna is a cooperation between M HKA, the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, and cultural -
When Faith Moves Mountains
17 July 2022 - 09 October 2022.
This project was set up differently from a classic exhibition; the working method was rather activist, whereby a 'coalition of the willing' s -
EXTRA MUROS: Visite Diest
27 November 2014 - 21 December 2014.
Under the umbrella termVisite, the M HKA – in collaboration with LOCUS, the hub for libraries, cultural and community centres and local cultu -
Worth Fighting For
14 November 2022 - 14 December 2022.
Worth Fighting For The Ukrainian fight is about the survival of a nation and its right to exist – politically, militarily, econom
Ensembles
View all-
Middle Gate
No description.
-
WAANZIN | MADNESS
It's a crazy story, that of Dymphna, and a story full of madness. The devil lurks around every corner. But what is the core of the madness he
-
Individualism
Individualism (with a reflection by Katja Petrowskaja) The individual stance, if relevant, is also a critical position towards the collec
-
We are not what we seem
No description.
Actors
View all