Kate Just, A Sign of the Times: A knitted translation of Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Blind Idealism is…), installed in 2016 along the New York Highline (2026)
Hand knitted acrylic yarns, timber, canvas
71 x 56cm x 2.5cm

Barbara Kruger is a prolific American artist who works with pictures and words to address issues of power, gender, race, sexuality, property and money. Her work is influenced by her early training as a graphic designer and often features bold Futura or Helvetica fonts. Previous canonical feminist works such as Untitled (your body is a battleground) and Untitled (I shop therefore I am) look at the ways women’s bodies operate as sites for advertising and consumerism.

Kruger’s mural, bearing the text “BLIND IDEALISM IS REACTIONARY SCARY DEADLY”, adapts a quote from Afro-Caribbean philosopher and revolutionary thinker Frantz Fanon (1925-61), which has appeared in multiple works by the artist.

The High Line Art catalogue text on Kruger’s work states: “The original statement by Fanon, ‘Blind idealism is reactionary,’ suggests that political and religious convictions stem from the situations from which they grow, not from the inherent nature of individual human beings. According to Kruger, the work reflects “how we are to one another” within “the days and nights that construct us.”

This sign continues to have heightened potency in today’s political landscape. While idealism can be found across the political spectrum, the far-right’s particular brand of idealism is often intertwined with exclusionary and harmful ideologies and policies. Scary and deadly indeed.