How Should We Picture This Election?

When I struggle to wrap my head around a problem, I often turn to art to help me literally picture the big issue and, I hope, guide me to an answer. In the same vein, CNN commissioned artists to create art based on the theme of “power” as part of their coverage of the 2012 election. Just as we’re beset with imagery from first the Frank Lloyd Wright-haunted Republican convention and now from the equally slickly staged Democratic convention, it’s fascinating to see how artists use their vision to cut through the extraneous noise of this political moment and cut down to the human essentials. If you’re suffering from sensory overload from all the biographical videos and group-tested backdrops, then a dose of these artists might be just what you need. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "How Should We Picture This Election?"

[Image: Katrin Eismann. Untitled.]

How Barbara Kruger Asks the Questions This Election Must Answer

Every election comes with questions, ranging from the serious (How will we fix the economy?) to the ludicrous (Was he born in this country?). But this election season, artist Barbara Kruger is asking the open-ended questions that this election (and every election) must answer in her exhibition Belief+Doubt at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. Using her standard modus operandi of larger-than-lifesize text, Kruger grabs your attention at the very moment that attention must be paid in America. Although Kruger is asking these questions, the real question might be whether we are ready to answer them. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "How HoHoBarbaraKruger Asks the Questions This Election Must Answer."

[Image: Barbara Kruger, Belief+Doubt, 2012. © Barbara Kruger. Photo: Cathy Carver.]

[Many thanks to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, for providing me with the image above and other press materials related to Barbara Kruger’s exhibition Belief+Doubt, which runs through December 31, 2014.]