“Seeing Red: Subversion, Appropriation, and the Feminist Gaze in Barbara Kruger’s Art”
Abstrak
: This article offers a case study of Barbara Kruger’s visual rhetoric to show how her signature fusion of found photography and sensational, headline-styled typography constructs a persuasive visual language that both inhabits and destabilizes dominant ideologies. Drawing on feminist rhetorical theory and cultural studies including Campbell (1998); Moi (1997); Balsamo (1996); Milkie (2002); and Dubriwny (2005), the analysis situates Kruger’s art as a subversive engagement with the visual grammars of advertising and mass media. Through close readings of Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground ) (1989) and Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face) (1981), the article demonstrates how Kruger leverages collage to collapse binaries (subject/object, passive/active, high/ low), expose the commodification of bodies, and reconfigure spectatorship via a feminist gaze. Ultimately, this study proposes collage as feminist iconography with durable subversive potential, offering a model for rhetorical invention within and against the visual regimes of consumer capitalism.
Penulis (1)
Rachel E. Molko
Akses Cepat
PDF tidak tersedia langsung
Cek di sumber asli →- Tahun Terbit
- 2026
- Bahasa
- en
- Sumber Database
- Semantic Scholar
- DOI
- 10.37514/pei-j.2026.28.2.20
- Akses
- Open Access ✓