Untitled (We are your circumstantial evidence)

Currently not on view

Untitled (We are your circumstantial evidence)

1983

Barbara Kruger (American, born 1945)

Kruger is one of several artists who turned to advertising and pop culture as sources for her art in the 1970s. Printed at billboard scale and framed in bright red, the phrase “We are your circumstantial evidence” seems at first glance to be a strident declaration. However, the image and text do not match up in any obvious way, making their relationship unclear. Moreover, the words “we” and “your” allow the viewer to assume either position in relation to the sentence, which might refer to power relations between two groups (for instance, women and men) or to the ways in which photographs have been used as evidence of supposed truths.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Untitled (We are your circumstantial evidence)

Date:

1983

Artist:

Barbara Kruger (American, born 1945)

Medium:

Gelatin silver prints (three)

Dimensions:

Framed (overall): 12 feet 3 inches × 24 feet 3 inches × 2 inches (373.4 × 739.1 × 5.1 cm)

Classification:

Photographs

Credit Line:

Gift of Henry S. McNeil, Jr., 1985

Accession Number:

1985-36-1a--c

Geography:

Made in United States, North and Central America

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Currently not on view