Artist Lecture - Brian Kruger

Brian Kruger’s projects are very interesting and strange at the same time. Much of his work is focused around the everyday life and different interactions that he has with other people. 
During his lecture he talked about something he referred to as the “Unknowability Center,” which seemed very intriguing.  This Unknowability Center seemed to be an abstraction of our own identity.  Kruger referred to Donald Rumsfield’s idea of people trying to put their knowledge and everything we know into some sort of framework. These frames determine everything according to Kruger.  They determine what is allowed and what is not.  He then took this idea and formed it around our identity; explaining that we frame our identity as a commodity or a brand.  This Unknowability Center is just an expression of our identity. Kruger in his work moves to try and explore this Unknowability Center. 
For example, in his work Time for Tom, he draws a series of pictures that he felt were the underlying nature of the big graphics corporation he was working for.  These images were meant to try and express the outer framework that went on in the workplace.  In a way they seemed to be an expression of all the madness that is suppressed because of social norms.  Perhaps these were representations of his own feelings toward the company, however they were still vital toward his idea and development of the Unknowability Center.

In addition, Kruger’s performance art is both visually pleasing and provokes critical analysis of our identities. The display that was presented after his lecture seemed to be his idea of expressing an identity that left the viewer unfulfilled with what was being seen. Perhaps this is his way of expressing an ambiguous identity that was both exciting and aesthetically pleasing.