Ken Lum, You Don’t Love Me 1994. Lent by the Tate Americas Foundation, courtesy of the North American Acquisitions Committee and Eleanor and Frances Shen 2025. © Ken Lum; Courtesy of the Artist and Magenta Plains, New York.
10 rooms in Media Networks
See how three artists use photography to explore and critique advertising, billboards and mass media
‘Billboards capture and encapsulate ideology, the social, economic and political climate at any given time. They retain their appeal for social engineering.’ – Santu Mofokeng
In this display, three artists working in photography explore the techniques of advertising and billboards, responding to the over-saturation of mass media in society. Inspired by eye-catching graphic composition, exaggerated staging and stereotypical imagery, they use these approaches to make their own critiques of contemporary society.
Each of the artists make these critiques in different ways, and in different contexts. Santu Mofokeng constructs his photographs of Black townships in post-apartheid South Africa, emphasising how the lifestyle promised in billboards can offer a stark, even cruel contrast to daily life. Edward Ruscha instead adopts and subverts the language of Hollywood film posters that depict grand landscapes typically associated with cowboy westerns.
Ken Lum’s work You Don’t Love Me 1994 gives the title to this display, emphasising the manipulative nature of advertising techniques so prevalent in visual culture. In this work, Lum combines photography with text, often depicting characters grappling with societal pressures, as he observed in 1990s Vancouver.
Edward Ruscha, Your A Dead Man (Country Cityscapes series) 2001
The titles of the works in this series are not visible in the images, but appear to have been blanked out, obscuring the landscape behind. These titles are aggressive cowboy catch-phrases from the Western movie genre. Ruscha suggests how cultural stereotypes affect the way we see the North American landscape. These clichés are often generated in mass-media producing cities, such as Los Angeles.
Gallery label, July 2019
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artworks in You Don't Love Me
Edward Ruscha, It’s Payback Time (Country Cityscapes series) 2001
The titles of the works in this series are not visible in the images, but appear to have been blanked out, obscuring the landscape behind. These titles are aggressive cowboy catch-phrases from the Western movie genre. Ruscha suggests how cultural stereotypes affect the way we see the North American landscape. These clichés are often generated in mass-media producing cities, such as Los Angeles.
Gallery label, July 2019
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artworks in You Don't Love Me
Edward Ruscha, Be Careful... You Hear Me? (Country Cityscapes series) 2001
The titles of the works in this series are not visible in the images, but appear to have been blanked out, obscuring the landscape behind. These titles are aggressive cowboy catch-phrases from the Western movie genre. Ruscha suggests how cultural stereotypes affect the way we see the North American landscape. These clichés are often generated in mass-media producing cities, such as Los Angeles.
Gallery label, July 2019
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artworks in You Don't Love Me
Edward Ruscha, You Will Eat Hot Lead (Country Cityscapes series) 2001
The titles of the works in this series are not visible in the images, but appear to have been blanked out, obscuring the landscape behind. These titles are aggressive cowboy catch-phrases from the Western movie genre. Ruscha suggests how cultural stereotypes affect the way we see the North American landscape. These clichés are often generated in mass-media producing cities, such as Los Angeles.
Gallery label, July 2019
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artworks in You Don't Love Me
Ken Lum, You Don’t Love Me 1994
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artworks in You Don't Love Me
Santu Mofokeng, A Roadside Sign in Tshwane, Marabastad / Hammanskraal c.2008, printed 2011
This black and white photograph is from Santu Mofokeng’s series Billboards 1991–2009, a series that draws attention to the omnipresence of advertising posters in various locations around Mofokeng’s native South Africa. Tate has five works from Billboards in its collection: Street Scene – Rockville c.2004, printed 2011 (Tate P82115); Robben Island as You’ve Never Seen It Before c.2002, printed 2011 (Tate P82116); ‘Y’ello Freedom’, Baragwanath Terminus – Diepkloof c.2004, printed 2011 (Tate P82272); Potchefstroom Road, Soweto 2009, printed 2011 (Tate P82273); and A Roadside Sign in Tshwane, Marabastad / Hammanskraal c.2008, printed 2011 (Tate P82117). The photographs in Billboards were taken over a number of years between 1991 and 2009 and printed in 2011 in editions of five plus two artist’s proofs; Tate’s copy of A Roadside Sign in Tshwane, Marabastad / Hammanskraal is number one in the main edition.
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artworks in You Don't Love Me
Santu Mofokeng, Street Scene - Rockville c.2004, printed 2011
This black and white photograph is from Santu Mofokeng’s series Billboards 1991–2009, a series that draws attention to the omnipresence of advertising posters in various locations around Mofokeng’s native South Africa. Tate has five works from Billboards in its collection: Street Scene – Rockville c.2004, printed 2011 (Tate P82115); Robben Island as You’ve Never Seen It Before c.2002, printed 2011 (Tate P82116); ‘Y’ello Freedom’, Baragwanath Terminus – Diepkloof c.2004, printed 2011 (Tate P82272); Potchefstroom Road, Soweto 2009, printed 2011 (Tate P82273); and A Roadside Sign in Tshwane, Marabastad / Hammanskraal c.2008, printed 2011 (Tate P82117). The photographs in Billboards were taken over a number of years between 1991 and 2009 and printed in 2011 in editions of five plus two artist’s proofs; Tate’s copy of ‘Y’ello Freedom’, Baragwanath Terminus – Diepkloof is number four in the main edition.
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artworks in You Don't Love Me
Santu Mofokeng, Robben Island as You’ve Never Seen It Before c.2002, printed 2011
This black and white photograph is from Santu Mofokeng’s series Billboards 1991–2009, a series that draws attention to the omnipresence of advertising posters in various locations around Mofokeng’s native South Africa. Tate has five works from Billboards in its collection: Street Scene – Rockville c.2004, printed 2011 (Tate P82115); Robben Island as You’ve Never Seen It Before c.2002, printed 2011 (Tate P82116); ‘Y’ello Freedom’, Baragwanath Terminus – Diepkloof c.2004, printed 2011 (Tate P82272); Potchefstroom Road, Soweto 2009, printed 2011 (Tate P82273); and A Roadside Sign in Tshwane, Marabastad / Hammanskraal c.2008, printed 2011 (Tate P82117). The photographs in Billboards were taken over a number of years between 1991 and 2009 and printed in 2011 in editions of five plus two artist’s proofs; Tate’s copy of Robben Island as You’ve Never Seen It Before is number three in the main edition.
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artworks in You Don't Love Me
Edward Ruscha, Noose Around Your Neck (Country Cityscapes series) 2001
The titles of the works in this series are not visible in the images, but appear to have been blanked out, obscuring the landscape behind. These titles are aggressive cowboy catch-phrases from the Western movie genre. Ruscha suggests how cultural stereotypes affect the way we see the North American landscape. These clichés are often generated in mass-media producing cities, such as Los Angeles.
Gallery label, July 2019
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artworks in You Don't Love Me
Edward Ruscha, Do As Told or Suffer (Country Cityscapes series) 2001
The titles of the works in this series are not visible in the images, but appear to have been blanked out, obscuring the landscape behind. These titles are aggressive cowboy catch-phrases from the Western movie genre. Ruscha suggests how cultural stereotypes affect the way we see the North American landscape. These clichés are often generated in mass-media producing cities, such as Los Angeles.
Gallery label, July 2019
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artworks in You Don't Love Me
Art in this room
Edward Ruscha
Your A Dead Man (Country Cityscapes series)
2001
Edward Ruscha
It’s Payback Time (Country Cityscapes series)
2001
Edward Ruscha
Be Careful... You Hear Me? (Country Cityscapes series)
2001
Edward Ruscha
You Will Eat Hot Lead (Country Cityscapes series)
2001
Ken Lum
You Don’t Love Me
1994
Santu Mofokeng
A Roadside Sign in Tshwane, Marabastad / Hammanskraal
c.2008, printed 2011
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