TABLE OF CONTENTS AN INTRODUCTION 04 INSPIRATION 05 CONSCIENCE FIREWORKS
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POETICS OF SPACE
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ABOUT THE ARTIST 23 EXHIBITION INFORMATION
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EXHIBITION CHECKLIST 26
AN INTRODUCTION The marriage of form and content has often been divorced in the critical address of Jenny Holzer’s work, with content extensively parsed and form presented as an adjunct if necessary element. In good part because Holzer’s practice has been recognized as that of a Conceptualist, her words have been privileged. Yet it is how Holzer situates her texts in space that makes for an experience different from-though critically based in reading. As the artist herself has said: “People talk about the content, and that’s right, but very few mention how the stuff looks, and that’s important.”
“ SHE WRITES AS WELL OF THE MIXED EMOTIONAL RESPONSE OF INDIVIDUALS EXPERIENCE, CHASTENING AND EXCITING, SHE AWAKENS WHAT IS ABJECT IN US TO AN AWED JOY.” Holzer’s body of work for the past 30 years has centered on the articulation of speech, and as the subjects, phrasing, tone, duration, and authorship of her expressions have changed, so, too, have their embodiments. At times she uses a correlate to the tone of her voicing, as in the plain, inexpensive, offset-printed posters that initially, in 1977, carried her own vernacular-sounding, epigrammatic. Truisms into the streets, or via the thin, five-foot-high white LED (light-emitting diode) strips mounted behind glass that carry more than 30 hours of an anthology of centuries of New York stories. Holzer has called the “sometime wistful” ambience of the site in writing that is “slow and white and floating.” But at other times, Holzer’s work gains by employing a dissonance between medium and message. Holzer invokes the wallbound serial repetitions of Donald Judd’s stacks along with the aura of Dan Flavin’s fluorescent light illuminations to create a hypnotic intervention that is at once ephemeral and muscularly architectonic. But the impulse to work with a given space and its particularities would soon lead Holzer to create environments with these LED signs that immersed the viewer in an inescapable totality of language and light.
Jenny Holzer / language of light
04
INSPIRATION Holzer has engaged with socially and politically charged ideas
Labeling Holzer as a political artist oversimplifies her prac-
throughout her career from the vantage point of the social-
tice of presenting our culture’s range of voices and values;
ly useful. She has consistently emphasized the artwork as a
nonetheless, her work is deeply political in the way it raises
carrier of ideas that stimulate a passive viewer to become an
questions and catalyzes thinking about the role of individu-
questioner by inviting reflection on intentions, meaning, and
als in society and the relationship between the public and
authorship. Poet Henri Cole aptly pinpoints how Holzer’s
private realms. Power and vulnerability, violence and tender-
language-based work operates to offer “the experience of read-
ness, moral struggle and depravity-all manners of contradic-
ing, where self-forgetfulness brings about recognition of the
tory motivationsare chronicled in her work as interwoven im-
self.”
pulses. The method in which she reveals our society’s and our collective psyche’s deeply embedded actions, emotions, and
This characteristic spans her entire body of work-from text
intellectual constructs offers a mirror of ourselves that spans
pieces begun in the late 1970s to LED works programmed
the complexities of human experience.
with text that have been ongoing since the early 1980s, to the more recent light projection pieces she has realized on building exteriors since the mid-1990s and in interiors since 2006, and her newest silk-screen paintings that present text images culled from declassified U.S. government documents.
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CONSCIENCE FIREWORKS In 1996, Holzer presented her first outdoor film projection as
you.... “
part of the Biennale di Firenze: If Tempo e Ia Moda, working
Originally referred to as “xenon” projections for the type of
with a new apparatus and demonstrating what has become
lamp used (derived from the Greek xenon, “strange”), this
a typical adeptness at incorporating such technology in her
film projection deploys 185-mm film and throws a bright,
work. “I found out that it existed and wanted to do some-
powerful light long distances. For these, Holzer supplied
thing different from the electronic signs, with their Wall Street
projection technicians with a digital file of her writing,
as- sociations. The projections are more lovely and romantic
which was then reproduced on the film stock. The extremely
looking. In Flor- ence, we worked with the canoe club and
large film was run through a mechanical projector and con-
projected the texts on the surface of the Arno and on build-
trolled by a digital device, thus projecting the text as a slow-
ings on the river bank opposite.” She projected revisions of a
moving crawl. The choice to use traditional film rather than
project she had earlier created for an AIDS fundraiser, “Red
video was an aesthetic one for Holzer: “The film projec- tors
Hot Dance,” which were seen in a video for the music that
are brighter than the digital equipment, and the quality of
was being sold by the fund raising group, The Red Hot Orga-
light more beautiful. The light passes through a mask, and is
nization. The texts, now titled Arno, are intimate reflections,
not chopped into digital.”
summarized by Holzer as “I walk in ... Iseeyou...Iwatchyou... Iscanyou...Iwaitforyou...Itickleyou...I tease you ... I search
Over the past dozen years, Holzer has exhibited her projec-
People ask if the documents are real.” In selecting which of her
tions on sup- ports as different as the crashing waves and
films (running about one hour, but looped to run continuously)
shifting sands of the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, the exterior
to include for projection at a particular site, Holzer at times cre-
of the Helmut Lang shop in Paris, as well as on iconic build-
ates new anthologies of texts responsive to a site’s particular his-
ings, such as I. M. Pei’s Pyramide du Louvre, the New York
tory as well as to the possibilities for her “screen.”
the Bobst Library of New York University, two projectors
“ THE FILM PROJECTORS ARE BRIGHTER THAN THE DIGITAL EQUIPMENT, AND Holzer’s light projections THE QUALITY OF LIGHT BEAUTIFUL. has often been noted as THE LIGHT PASSES THROUGH A MASK, being related to the film credits at the end of a AND IS NOT CHOPPED INTO DIGITAL.”
were employed. “At NYU, I split the documents so that on
movie, the very credits The Hollywood Ten were denied (or else
the right were policy documents, and on the left were first-
credited as pseudonyms, for those who managed to gain work
person accounts, whether from detainees or sol- diers: ‘I saw
sub rosa). Nor are Holzer’s light projections unlike son et lumiere
... I did ... This happened to me.”’ The process was the same
shows at historic sites.
Public Library, Rockefeller Center, and Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, among many others. At the Gelman Library of The George Washington University, which houses the National Security Archive, Holzer used a sin- gle projector to show selections of declassified government documents. At
The slow crawl of words of
at both libraries: “Text transfers to film. Film scrolls very slowly on the facade.
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Jenny Holzer / language of light
10
A particularly literal and evocative choice informed her projection For the Capitol (2007) where the crawl of words was Holzer’s simulating of quotation; from John F. Kennedy and Theodore Roosevelt, projected from the outdoor terrace oft he Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., onto the Potomac River and Roosevelt Island. (There were two projectors at the Kennedy Center. The projector on the left ran the Roosevelt film; the projector on the right, the Kennedy.) This kind of echoing of place, of course, is also related to many of her commissions in other media, such as For Pittsburgh (2005), an enormous LED installation, her largest in the United States, which is sited along a pair of sweeping ascents that define the roofline of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, and on which Holzer uses blue diodes to display the texts of novels that take place in Pittsburgh by Annie Dillard, John Edgar Wideman, and Thomas Bell, or the Los Angeles garden of Hol- zer’s Blacklist (1999), honoring The Hollywood Ten, who were blacklisted by the movie industry because of their refusal to testify, citing their First Amendment rights, when subpoenaed by the House UnAmerican Activi- ties Committee in 1947. It is commonly admitted that to read is to decode: letters, words, meanings, structures, and this is incontestable; but by accumulating decoding (since reading is by rights infinite), by removing the safety catch of meaning, by putting reading into freewheeling (which is its structural vocation), the reader is caught up in a dialectical reversal: finally, he does not decode, he overcomes; he does not decipher, he produces, he accumulates languages, he lets himself be infinitely and tirelessly traversed by them: he is that traversal.
Jenny Holzer / language of light
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“ THE READER IS CAUGHT UP IN A DIALECTICAL REVERSAL:FINALLY, HE DOES NOT DECODE, HE DOES NOT DECIPHER, HE IS NOW INFINITELY AND TIRELESSLY TRAVERSED BY THEM.”
POETICS OF SPACE The question of whether to use the same texts indoors and
move through the space. The experiences of time as well
out has been one Holzer has faced for many years. “The
as a fogged surround of changing light are paramount in
text used to be identical whether it was shown out of doors
grasping the language and its meanings. The immersion in
or inside. The emphasis was on the public works. Then I
light and languages turns reading into a physical presence,
would bring the artifacts from outside indoors, but I wasn’t
the experience almost a dreamlike state.
satis- fied with them as official artwork.” This led her to a split practice, where there “are the public things, like the
Holzer first brought her projections indoors, at Vienna’s
television spots. The subject matter tends to be the same,
MAKin 2006, for a show titled XX, and she made the first
but what I’ll do if I know it’s going to be in a gallery or
U.S. presentation of such works at the Massachusetts Mu-
museum where people are willing to invest more time, is
seum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA in North Adams,
write longer, more complicated texts. On the street the text
Massachusetts, in 2007-8. In both shows she created op-
has to be a one-liner if I hope to catch someone’s attention.
posing flows of text by using two projectors at the far ends
The subjects are the same: war, sex, death. Premature death
of a long room, but Holzer’s method of reading and, in fact,
seems to be the recurring theme, but I approach it in differ-
editing these works differed. For MAK, Holzer used two
ent ways because of the different demands of the audience.”
novels by Elfriede Jelinek- Women as Lov-rs and Wonderful, Wonderful Times-having been introduced to Jelinek’s
For her first light projections used indoors in 2006, the
work by designer Helmut Lang, who had known the writer
texts had not been used outdoors; for her second, the fol-
in Vienna.
lowing year, she used the same texts both indoors and out. Holzer slows the pace of her indoor projections, single lines
Before, Holzer had always used the complete text of other
moving at a crawl almost at the rate of breathing across
writers, whether whole novels, as was the case in For Pitts-
the ceilings, floors, and walls of the gallery space as well
burgh, or sensitively edited an- thologies, such as in For 7
as across any obstacles in their path, whether those be the
World Trade. But here she abridged the Jelinek works. In
audience or large island like pods for seating. The texts ap-
the process, she continued to develop and refine a new way
pear to de- construct themselves as they distort and dis-
of reading, and editing, choosing different stresses for dif-
solve, splay into abstract marks and slip across the physical
ferent passages to reshape the long texts for the slow, line-
elements of the room and across the bodies of viewers who
by-line reading of her audience.
Jenny Holzer / language of light
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“Jelinek blessed the method as well as the result,” says Hol-
the flow of language by topics, some of which we expect
good thing to proffer to people. Here is what’s essential,
that was immedi- ate and available to people. That seemed
zer. Jelinek wrote the artist: “Thank you, dear Jenny: won-
of her, as in “Torture.” Yet others came as a surprise, par-
written by a superb poet, floating by and on you.”
worthy, particularly his early book Statements, where he
derful wonderful work! You have done. I’m so glad I left it
ticularly “The Joy of Writing,” perhaps an ironic reference
Holzer’s engagement of the gallery space for these light in-
gave instructions-a bunch of instructions and anyone can
entirely to you.” She goes on, sharing Holzer’s deadpan hu-
both to the titles of popular cooking and sex books as well
stallations in- voked a history of experiential spaces such
make the art.” Especially important for Holzer are the in-
mor: “It’s very interesting for me to see the text ‘butchered’
as to Matisse’s The Joy of Life that seemed to imply another
as El Lissitzky’s Proun rooms of the early 1920s, which
structions of Sol LeW itt as procedures for others to install
by you. Very fine schnitzels and cutlets! I’m glad ... kindest
reason for her turn to the writings of others: Holzer has
served as way stations for both painting and architecture,
his wall drawings. As she recently said, “I am reassured by
regards, Elfriede.” For Mass MoCA, Holzer used the poetry
referred to the struggle of her own crafting of language as a
in addition to the psychological, literary, and visual pro-
order and ordering, admired how LeWitt used systems as
of the Nobel Prize-winning Pol- ish poet Wis+awa Szym-
recurring return to “writing jail.”
jections of the Imagist poet H.D.’s “Writing on the Wall,”
the foundation, and then made that mad and mysterious.”
borska for the dual projections within a 252-by- 53-foot
and contemporary artists whose instructional language in-
gallery. Szymborska in the Mass MoCA installation is, in
In explaining her choice of symbolism, Holzer has cited the
tended to result in images in space has been inspiration for
a sense, a surrogate for Holzer; she is the poet that Holzer
work’s deft combination of immediate relevance and time-
Holzer, including that of Lawrence Weiner, “partly because
herself has never claimed to be, despite the appearance of
lessness. She recently said: “Szymborska writes on a number
it was language, but more so because it was about work
some of her own writings as terse, evoca- tive poems.
of subjects that are of interest to me. She has a poem about torture, about refugees. There’s one about a terrorist. These
As an anthologist and director of the filmed images of
are things on people’s minds now. She writes about writing.
Szym- borska’s works, assuming the tasks of stage direc-
She writes about being guilty. And then there’s one about
tor and lighting designer, overseeing the scale, tempo, and
parting I like because it’s a gentle release. Szymborska man-
placement of these changing elements, Holzer organized
ages to speak to everything essential, and I think that’s a
“ SHE WRITES ABOUT WRITING. SHE WRITES ABOUT BEING GUILTY, IT’S A GENTLE RELEASE. HERE IS WHAT’S ESSENTIAL, WRITTEN BY A SUPERB POET, FLOATING BY AND ON YOU.”
EXHIBITION INFORMATION
ABOUT THE ARTIST
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Jenny Holzer was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1950. She
French government. Major exhibitions include Neue
received a BA from Ohio University in Athens (1972);
Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2001); Contemporary Arts Mu-
>>exhibition / Jenny Holzer, language of light
an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Provi-
seum, Houston (1997); Dia Art Foundation, New York
july 27th throughout september 27th
dence (1977); and honorary doctorates from the Univer-
(1989); and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
sity of Ohio (1993), the Rhode Island School of Design
(1989). Since 1996, Holzer has organized public light pro-
ADDRESS — 151 3rd Street PHONE — (415) 357-4000
(2003), and New School University, New York (2005).
jections in cities worldwide. She was the first woman to
Whether questioning consumerist impulses, describ-
represent the United States in the Venice Biennale (1990).
ing torture, or lamenting death and disease, Jenny Hol-
Jenny Holzer lives and works in Hoosick Falls, New York.
zer’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
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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. Hol-
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: www.sfmoma.org
zer’s recent use of text ranges from silk-screened paintings of declassified government memoranda detailing prisoner abuse to poetry and prose in a sixty-five-foot-wide wall of light in the lobby of World Trade Center, New York. She has received many awards, including the Golden Lion from the Venice Biennale (1990); the Skowhegan Medal (1994); and the Diploma of Chevalier (2000) from the 23
Jenny Holzer / language of light
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EXHIBITION CHECKLIST 1. Prague (2009) “V noci” text from Povidky III by Franz Kafka. Light projection. Courtesy of Jenny Holzer, member of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Pg 7–8
7. Purple (2008) 33 electronic signs with red, blue, white, and yellow, green diodes. Courtesy of Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland. Pg 06
2. Xenon for Paris (2009) Lustmord text from Truisms. Light projection. Courtesy of the National Contemporary Art Fund, Paris. Pg 10
8. Projections (2008) Selected poems from View with a Grain of Sand & Poems New & Collected: 1957 – 1997. Light projection. Courtesy of Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Boston. Pg 15
3. For the Academy (2007) “He Embraces His Murderer” text from Unfor- tunately, It Was Paradise by Mahmoud Darwish. Light projection. Cour- tesy of the American Academy in Rome, Italy. Pg 09 4. For the Academy (2007) “XIII” from Notti di pace occidentale by An- tonella Annedda. Light projection. Courtesy of the Ameriecan Academy in Rome, Italy. Pg 11–12
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9. New Tilt (2011) Vertical, tilted, double – sided LED sign with blue & red diodes on front with blue & green on the back. Courtesy of Kukje Gal- lery in Seoul, Korea. Pg 19–20 10. Blue Purple Tilt (2007) 7 double – sided vertical LED signs. Courtesy of the National Galleries of Scotland. Pg 23
5. For the Guggenheim (2008) Text from “View with a Grain of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska. Light projection. Courtesy of Guggenheim Museum, New York. Pg 13–14
11. Red Yellow Looming (2008) 13 double – sided, curved electronic LED signs. Courtesy of the Beyeler Fondation in Riehen, Switzerland. Pg 05
6. For Chicago (2008) 11 electronic signs with amber diodes. Courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago. Pg 17–18
12. The White House (2006) Prints and Multiples. Black oil silkscreen on canvas. Courtesy of Artnet Worldwide Corporation, New York. Pg 23
Jenny Holzer / language of light
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