Barbara Kruger Project For Pitzer College (2001)



In spring, 2000 Barbara Kruger visited the Pitzer College campus in Claremont, California at the invitation of the Campus Aesthetics Committee, to consider producing an art project for the campus community. After initial discussion of a billboard-sized public artwork, she instead proposed smaller, multiple objects that would become part of campus life. Due to budgeting restrictions, the artist considered some proposals from students, staff, and faculty to make some objects that are part of the everyday school life at the Claremont Colleges. In the fall of 2001 she selected two objects to make a number of copies of, with an original design: t-shirts and stickers for bookcovers and windows. Her objective in making this type of object, as she had done in numerous other projects, was to bring the artwork and its issues into ordinary, day-to-day experience rather than walled off in a museum exhibition hall--strategically placing the images and text where many people can see, enjoy, think and dialogue about them. A roundtable discussion of the project in April, 2001 introduced her work and the objects to be used for the project to the Claremont community. The objects were produced over the summer of 2001 and distributed in August and September to incoming and returning students and faculty. The artist agreed to allow Pitzer students, faculty, and staff make other objects using her design, and coffee mugs were designed and are being produced; students are also planning the use of a silk screen process this fall, 2001 to make other ojbects. In distributing the objects, students were given the following message: These shirts and stickers are meant to be passed on, so please, wear them proudly and give everyone on the street and on the campus something to contemplate.