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JENNY HOLZER
Jenny Holzer (born 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio) is an American conceptual artist. She attended Ohio University (in Athens, Ohio), Rhode Island School of Design, and the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Holzer was originally an abstract artist, focusing on painting and printmaking; after moving to New York City in 1977, she began working with text as art.
Jenny Holzer was born in Gallipolis, Ohio in 1950. She received a BA from Ohio University in Athens (1972); an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (1977); and honorary doctorates from the University of Ohio (1993), the Rhode Island School of Design (2003), and New School University, New York (2005). Whether questioning consumerist impulses, describing torture, or lamenting death and disease, Jenny Holzer's use of language provokes a response in the viewer. While her subversive work often blends in among advertisements in public space, its arresting content violates expectations. Holzer's texts-such as the aphorisms "abuse of power comes as no surprise" and "protect me from what I want"-have appeared on posters and condoms, and as electronic LED signs and projections of xenon light. Holzer's recent use of text ranges from silk-screened paintings of declassified government memoranda detailing prisoner abuse, to poetry and prose in a 65-foot wide wall of light in the lobby of 7 World Trade Center, New York.
Holzer often uses "Truisms"- a series of short, simple statements which comment on a diversity of personal, social and political issues. With other "Truisms", such as Abuse of Power Comes as no Surprise and Money Creates Taste, Holzer questions the values of contemporary society. By appropriating the techniques of mass communication, particularly those normally associated with the world of advertising, Holzer shifts the arena for art out of the gallery and into the public domain. Her provocative slogans have also been displayed on T-Shirts, baseball caps, anonymous street posters, brass plaques, and sports stadium scoreboards, forming a body of work that can best be described as an urban street poetry.
The main focus of her work is the use of words and ideas in public space. Street posters are her favorite medium, and she also makes use of a variety of other media, including LED signs, plaques, benches, stickers, T-shirts, and the Internet. Her work has also been integrated into the work of Canadian contemporary dance troupe Holy Body Tattoo.
" Truisms (1977-) [1] is probably her most well-known work. Holzer has compiled a series of statements and aphorisms ("truisms") and has publicised them in a variety of ways: listed on street posters, in telephone booths, and even, in 1982, on one of Times Square's gigantic LED billboards, or in 1999 on a BMW V12 LMR race car for the 24 Hours of Le Mans
" Inflammatory Essays (1978-79), in which she brought texts influenced by Trotsky, Hitler, Mao, Lenin, and Emma Goldman onto the streets
" Living Series (early 1980s), using more monumental media
such as bronze plaques and billboards
" Survival Series (1983-1985), with more militant aphorisms, including "Men Don't Protect You Anymore," a phrase reproduced on condoms and street billboards alike
" Under a Rock
" Lament
" Child Text, a piece on motherhood for the 1990 Venice Biennale
" Green Table (1992), a large granite picnic table with inscriptions, part of the Stuart Collection of public art on the campus of the University of California, San Diego
" Please Change Beliefs (1995) [2], created for the internet art gallery adaweb [3].
" Installation for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997) Permanent Installation, located off the main room of the Guggenheim Bilbao, with tall LED columns of text in English (red, on the front side) and Basque (blue, on the back side).
" For the City (2005), nighttime projections of declassified government documents on the exterior of New York University's Bobst Library, and poetry on the exteriors of Rockefeller Center and the New York Public Library in Manhattan [4]
" For the Capitol (2007), nighttime projections of quotes by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Theodore Roosevelt about the role of art and culture in American Society. Projected from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts onto the Potomac River and Roosevelt Island in Washington DC. [5]
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