MDDN314: Artist Presentation - Jenny Holzer

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Today we are here to talk to you about the work and impact of Jenny Holzer. Jenny Holzer is an American Neo-Conceptualist artist. She was born in 1950 in Gallipolis Ohio.


After gaining her undergraduate degree in fine arts at the University of Ohio. Jenny enrolled in the Rhode Island school of design and graduated with a Master of Fine arts. 


Jenny Holzer originally worked as a painter and printmaker and strived to be an abstract painter. Holzer copied diagrams from textbooks and found herself drawn to the  “neutral, factual and anonymous” captions beneath the images she was copying. This inspired her change from painting to text work, which has been present in all of her works made since this time. She enrolled in the Whitney Museum's independent study program and was inspired to start portraying language as visual art. Thus, she begun her first series of public art texts, otherwise known as truisms. 


What is a Truism?
“A statement that is obviously true and says nothing new or interesting”. “A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device”. The Truisms began after reading classical work during her time at the Whitney Museum’s study program where she was inspired with words.Holzer presents these truisms to the world in the form of one line statements. These are always written work and the public dimension is integral in the delivery of these truisms.

Holzer works with a variety of mediums to display her work to the public.Some of these mediums include t-shirts, plaques, coffee cups, and went on to use LED signs. She’s even printed some of her truisms onto condom packages. Her truisms feature explicit content and minimalist aesthetics about the world we live in and how advertising and consumerism affect society today.

Holzer’s Truisms series began in 1977 where she printed her Truism statements with black ink on white paper and posted them anonymously around Manhattan. She wheat-pasted the truisms to street posters and later displayed them on t-shirts, electronic signs, stone floors and benches. Her intentions with the truisms series were for people to read them amongst all the advertising and consumerism that is displayed in public places. Some of the truisms she wrote for this piece are: 

“ABUSE OF POWER SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE”

“FAITHFULNESS IS A SOCIAL NOT A BIOLOGICAL LAW”

“TECHNOLOGY WILL MAKE OR BREAK US”
In total, the series consisted of over 250 one line statements.

The truisms Holzer presents to the world aims to challenge public and individual opinions and to sharpen the awareness of advertising information. The truisms are depicted in public areas to create a juxtaposition to the commodified world around us. Being surrounded by media, advertising and product marketing, these truisms challenge cultural, economic and political conditions. The focus on language and ideas in such public spaces can create controversy, as topics such as gender relations and sexual identity and feminism are brought forth.

Computer technology and and the use projections changed the way Holzer presented her work to the public. In 1982 Holzer displayed nine of her Truisms on the giant Spectacolour Electronic sign board in Times Square at forty-second intervals. This was her first public display that used electronic sign boards and the basis for her most visible displays. Holzer continued to use LED signs and projections in her work and created large-scale displays for billboard advertisements, projections on buildings and illuminated electronic displays.


GOING INTO LED AND PROJECTION
Some of Jenny’s most progressive and striking work takes on the form of large scale projections.  This large projection of her work allowed her to reach larger audiences and stapled her as one of the main descendants of the both the conceptualist and pop art movements.


These large scale truisms have been largely appreciated and have led Holzer to creating work for some of the world's most prestigious museums, exhibitions and monuments. Here is a video of her projections in action.


These truisms is an in depth reading of the angst of everyday living and encourage the everyday people reading them to think harder about the parts of humanity we don’t feel comfortable talking about publicly. 


Survival states is a series that stands out to me particularly and was both projected and made into benches and things public spaces. Her survival projections project the horror we all face by just living in contemporary society, a piece from survival states that reads CRACK THE PELVIS SO SHE LIES RIGHT, THIS IS A MISTAKE. WHEN SHE DIES YOU CANNOT REPEAT THE ACT clearly sums up her angst towards the plain fact that women feel afraid and controlled by men and her tiredness of the constant stories of females being victims at the hands of men. 


Holzer is no stranger when it comes to tackling controversial topics. In response to the violence against women committed in the Bosnian ethnic cleansing, Jenny Holzer made the Lustmord series, named from a German word meaning murder as a sexual tendency. In the series she shows two tables covered with bones assorted by classification, some with silver bands engraved with details of its victim's rape, torture, and murder. On the walls of the exhibition hang a series of photographs taken of text written on women's bodies with ink containing women's blood. In an interview Holzer said she found it most effective to represent the words of people no longer capable of saying them themselves. The words convey 3 perspectives on the Bosnian rapes, tortures, and murder: those of the survivor, the observer, and the perpetrator. To me, her work is making a comment on the human disconnect from fact and fiction. We are all desensitised to the horrible stuff that is happening on our own planet and she is trying to provoke us and make us form a feeling or an opinion about it. She draws attention the horrible things that are happening around us as well as the thoughts that are happening inside our minds. 


As jenny is progressing forward in her outing of controversial topics she seems to be withdrawing from the technical aspect of her work. Her latest piece, which is often exhibited with her lustmord series, is a response to the secreted involvement america has in the wars in Iraq and the middle east. In this work she displays large silk screen versions of secret documents that were released in the freedom of information act. The images show the handprints of soldiers who were committed of crimes related to the theatre of war, yet the detail of the name of the soldiers and handprints themselves are blacked out, showing the information was not truly communicated to the public. This work is particularly relevant to society as it probes the ever present issue of freedom of information.


Holzer has changed the pre-conceived ideas of where art should be shown, the intentions of it and for whom it is aimed at. She strives to get her audience to feel something or at least provoke a response from the viewer. Holzer has blurred the line between art and poetry and sees language as art. This has influenced people to pursue text-based art which has seen a large amount of growth in the last 30 years.

 Holzer’s truisms and the associated style of writing have become so famous, there is even a twitter account that parodies these truisms combined with parental advice.

 “YOU CAN PLAY WITH THE IDENTITY SOCIETY GAVE YOU AFTER YOU WRITE SOCIETY A THANK YOU NOTE”

 “NO ONE CAN PROTECT YOU FROM YOURSELF - I’M NOT NAGGING, I’M JUST SAYING”

 “ARE YOU GOING TO GO OUT AND DISMANTLE THE MEANS OF OPPRESSION OR ARE YOU GOING TO SIT AROUND THE HOUSE ALL DAY LIKE A LUMP?
If you want to have a look at more, her the twitter name is JennyHolzerMom
Her language art has massively influenced people over the last 40 years and provoked many different responses. To keep you thinking about her work we have posted her truisms around the school. 




Some of you may have already noticed them but we encourage the rest of you to have a read of her truism and take something away from her words.


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I am a designer, currently studying Design Innovation at Victoria University of Wellington. My focus areas are website and mobile media development, interaction design, 3D modelling and animation and audio-visual space. My blog shows my journey through each project as well as my learning experience through university. What do I want to be when I grow up? I have no idea. But I love what I'm learning. Although there have been many bumps along the road in this journey and despite the fact that there are going to be many more, I wouldn't have it any other way.

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