Barbara Kruger’s “Another” at UCSD

Earnie Grafton. 2008. Courtesy Union Tribune.

Barbara Kruger (Season 1) has created a wall and floor mural for the 4-story atrium of the Price Center East at the University of California San Diego, where the artist taught from 2002 to 2006. Another is the 17th piece in the 25-year old Stuart Collection of public/site-specific art on the campus, which also includes prominent works by Alexis Smith (Snake Path) and Season 2 artist Tim Hawkinson (Bear).

Another is more understated than Kruger’s usual fare, blending into its surroundings and incorporating a giant photomural of two clocks punctuated by text blocks reading “Another Day, Another Time, Another Loss, Another Dollar, Another Place, Another Time, Another Smile, Another Song, and Another Sweater.” The work is a commentary on the relentless nature of time, the “everydayness,” as the artist puts it. Live Reuter news and headlines are also integrated via two LED displays. In lieu of her usual solid red background, Kruger has substituted a more architectural terrazzo-style block in reds, greens and blues to counterpart the real terrazzo rectangles scattered across the floor, which itself is interspersed with quotations from various writers and social critics, such as “Those who make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities” (Voltaire).

Sounds like the perfect thing to digest in the center, a dining hall where students also eat and congregate.


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