Designing the Social World

By: Stephanie Haenn Entering the Perelman Building of the Philadelphia Art Museum, one instantly recognizes the uniqueness of the select … More

Voices of the Modern Museum: Alex Kalman of the MMuseumm

By Kylie Sharkey Alex Kalman founded the MMuseumm in 2012, an institution that delivers large doses of poeticism in small … More

Voices of Modern Museums: An Introduction

By Kylie Sharkey On January 29th, The Museum & Society department hosted a panel of museum founders titled “Museum Now”. … More

Ara Güler’s Anatolia

By Nicole Ziegler “In Focus: Ara Güler’s Anatolia,” which ran from December 14, 2013 to May 14, 2014 at the … More

Belief + Doubt

Barbara Kruger’s Belief + Doubt, a long-term exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., explores the themes of power, faith, consumerism, and desire through large-scale textual adages. Vinyl sheeting printed in Kruger’s characteristic red, black, and white hues boldly display open-ended axioms, prompting viewers to internalize, question, and dispute deceivingly simple phrases. Belief + Doubt represents a site-specific work, not only through the vinyl sheeting that climbs and envelops the building’s architecture, but also through the strategic placement of the exhibit within the Hirshhorn gift shop and, more broadly, within the Nation’s capital. Kruger’s work reinterprets the role of the museum in modern society, directly addressing and involving the spectator in an environment traditionally reserved for passive observation.