Barbara Kruger - Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground) - 1989

Barbara Kruger - Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989

This week I’ve been looking at Barbara Kruger’s (Untitled) Your Body is a Battleground. It’s such a direct image: a woman’s face cut in half, positive and negative, with the text dropped on top like an advert. But instead of selling us something it’s confronting us with the politics of the body. The message is blunt: our bodies aren’t neutral, they’re sites of power, conflict, and control.

I like how Kruger uses the visual language of graphic design, her bold typography, red blocks and sharp contrasts make her point unavoidable. It feels like design as weapon and communication that refuses to be soft. In a way, it’s the opposite of my practice, where I lean into beads, sparkles, and fairytale imagery, but that’s why I find it exciting. It makes me think about how text and image can collide to amplify meaning, and how “feminine” aesthetics can be just as politically charged as Kruger’s clean, aggressive style.

Kruger’s work also feels timeless, (sadly) the issues of reproductive rights and autonomy she highlighted in 1989 are still relevent now. That makes me reflect on how my own work could carry messages across time, embedding personal and political meaning into materials that might at first glance look whimsical. I’ve been attempting to do this in my studio classes by recreating contemporary events in historical styles, and much to my delight viewers in critique sessions question whether they are looking at something current or historical, so perhaps I am on the right path.