Artworks frame and reframe. Are sources of inspiration and awakening. Barbara Kruger’s bold statements that challenge concepts of power, values, notions and identities, can definitely be eye-opening. “Untitled. Pride and Contempt” at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation in Athens is one such example. Times and again, Kruger disrupts and reframes ‘regulations’ that dictate our mental patterns, biases, and socio-cultural stereotypes.
How do we consume images, words, and public space? Visual literacy is not a passive academic exercise. Visuality is the regulator of our reality, and unpacking our visuality is the way to support ourselves in comprehending our assumptions and in reframing the stories we tell.
To change our futures, to foster social resilience and confident decision-making, we urgently need first to critically unpack the visual and verbal structures dominating our present. “The Truth is a Myth”.