Art News

New Tube Map Cover Designed by Artist Barbara Kruger

LONDON.- Barbara Kruger uses the language of publicity to draw attention to the manipulative power of advertising. Her trademark subversive tactics are played out in ‘Untitled (Tube Map)’, where the familiar imagery of the map is used to relate her own feelings about London, a city she loves and knows well. Passengers are able to pick up Kruger’s map for free at Underground stations. The image shows a section of the Tube map in which the station names have been replaced by words that relate to Kruger’s experience of that part of London. Taking the very familiar visual language of the map, she keeps the main image intact but changes the words – still in the classic New Johnston Font – and liberates them from their daily function. St James’s Park is momentarily renamed ‘Fame’, Westminster station becomes ‘Reason’ and Victoria station as ‘Pride’ completes a humorous triangle/set of three. Kruger’s is the twelfth