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Have Me Feed Me Hug Me Love Me Need Me

Five framed images of light-skinned babies and/or text in black, white, and red, including commands such as "feed me."

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  • Five framed images of light-skinned babies and/or text in black, white, and red, including commands such as "feed me."

Date:

1988

Artist:

Barbara Kruger
American, born 1945

About this artwork

Building on her early career as a graphic designer, Barbara Kruger turns the style of advertising on its head to criticize consumer culture and the stereotyping of women. Each of these lenticular photographs shifts as it is viewed, alternating between the first-person demands of the title and pictures of newborn babies labeled with the names of psychological disorders. With these textual juxtapositions, Kruger calls out the societal pressures on women to bear children. The switching images, meanwhile, allude to the advertising practice of embedding subliminal messages that shape perceptions and desires. “[My] interest is in dealing with the way pictures and words have the power to tell us who we can and cannot be—how they construct us as social beings,” Kruger has said.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Barbara Kruger

Title

Have Me Feed Me Hug Me Love Me Need Me

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1988

Medium

Lenticular photograph

Dimensions

Each panel: 44.2 × 36.1 cm (17 7/16 × 14 1/4 in.); Overall: 49.3 × 303.1 × 27.3 cm (19 7/16 × 119 3/8 × 10 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Boardroom, Inc.

Reference Number

1992.687

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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