Untitled (You are a captive audience)
Photograph
Untitled (You are a captive audience)
1992
Gelatin silver print
1/1
Image: 78 7/8 × 47 1/16 in. (200.4 × 119.5 cm)
Frame: 82 1/2 × 49 in. (209.6 × 124.5 cm)
Purchase with funds from the Charina Foundation, 1992
1992.0379.0001
Inscriptions Typed on applied printed label on frame verso: Barbara Kruger \ Untitled (You are a captive audience) 82 1/2 by 50 (inches) \ Photograph 1992 MBG#6659 Mary Boone Gallery, 417 West Broadway \ New York, New York 431-1818
TextConceptual artist Barbara Kruger uses text and images to question societal and cultural stereotypes. Her work relies on methods of mass communication to confront and challenge the viewer. Kruger puts advertising imagery into a new context with bold words that address issues such as power, identity, feminism, and consumerism. Here, a male hand places a wedding ring on a female hand. The bold text, “You are a captive audience,” refers to the socially conventional experience of a wedding—an event that is supposed to arouse extreme joy.
