Pathway Project Writing: Jenny Holzer

My research into writing has taken me to Jenny Holzer,  b 1950,  who specialises in creating large and visually imposing installations using neon and lcd lighting to spell out bald messages about contemporary living. morality, sexuality, etc, etc.

The following comes from the Art 21 website here.

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 sixty-five-foot-wide wall of light in the lobby of 7 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 French government. Major exhibitions include Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2001); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (1997); Dia Art Foundation, New York (1989); and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1989). Since 1996, Holzer has organized public light projections in cities worldwide. She was the first woman to represent the United States in the Venice Biennale (1990). Jenny Holzer lives and works in Hoosick Falls, New York.




Many of her images are projected onto public buildings, are on a huge scale, cannot be overlooked by passing people.

Some messages are blatantly anti-consumerist, and their placement in prominent city locations (ilk ethos one in time Square, New York) is deliberately provocative and ironic.

Holzer also makes installations using neon lights such as this one 

In the 1970s and early 1908s, Jenny Holzer made a large number of works on paper recording aphorisms and statements about social and political issues.  The series, Inflammatory Essays, is thought provoking and challenging, such as this one

I am not sure where this lies on the map of different types of art.  Is this literary text?or is it conceptual art?  Does it matter?  

She did a series of embossed metal signs, rather like old British rail sings, which struck a particular chord with em, especially this one (which I found here).

because of the link with my own work on the signs t bristol Zoo for a college project last year.  I wish i had found this reference then...


I really like Holzer's work.  It makes big and bold and unmissable statement, with a strongly feminist, anti-consutmerist, anti-militarist perspective, which are unashamedly political and challenging.  She makes a big presence with her art, and requires that people notice, even if they don;t agree with, or like, what she si saying.  


Whereas Fiona Banner's written work is either very personal, or else relies on some pervious, and other persons's work, as the basis for her own writing, Holzer makes her statements on her own terms.  The use of aphorisms and cliches si an effective and arresting way to get the viewer/public punter, to stop and listen and think about the meaning of phrases which they use or hear casually every day.


I am not t all sure how you define "art" but something which makes people stop and reflect seems to me to be a big part of art's purpose.