Jenny Holzer – The power of language

 

            The power of language and text is the primary theme that continues to transverse throughout Jenny Holzer’s work. The words she uses are incorporated into small phrases or single sentence slogans. Words have a huge impact on people all over the world; they are the foundation of communication. Phrases can have many interpretations as well as reactions from all sorts of walks of life. Because of this Holzer includes issues into her phrases. These issues tend to focus on feminism, violence, death, war and oppression. Holzer uses phrases as a basis to get some sort of reaction from the audience of her art pieces. Public space is the source of most of her artworks as she is able to reach a broader audience and draw emotion by using technology in the form of LED lights, projections and truisms.

            The medium of technology has helped Jenny’s artwork span an enormous audience through the huge scale installations she makes. Instead of just writing words on paper, she is able to use LED lights in the form of signs to repeat many slogans. The LED signs, which she introduced in 1982, increased the agility of her art¹. These can be in the form of billboards, posters, t-shirts etc. Many of the LED lights are brightly colored and the words move across in different ways. “She has been able to accelerate and slow the words’ delivery with increasing precision, opening up a playful range of speed and pattern”¹ in order to keep the viewers interested. The slogans make the audience think about what they are watching and how the words they see invoke emotion from the viewer.  The LED signs used are not always displayed in the horizontal position but sometimes vertical, bending around a wall, displayed on the floor or coming out of the wall at different angles. Snag on a particular phrase and, as you watch it slide away, you’ll miss what’s coming up behind². The statements you are bombarded with can be a lot to take in and a lot to think about as you try to understand each one in turn. There is no breather space; it is one statement after another after another. The pace at which they appear is staggering, some of them are really fast that you cannot take them in all at once. You can almost relate them to advertisements; wherever you go you are attacked by hundreds of products and services all begging for your money. They are on television, billboards, newspapers, magazines, on the streets. You live amongst them and they all want one thing from you. Money and nothing else; in a way Jenny only wants one thing too, and that may be your thoughts. What are you thinking about as you read it? What emotions encompass you as you watch the lights float past? The artwork is directed to the individual and forces you to contemplate.

Holzer uses text and words in different contexts not just through LED lights. “Holzer has organized public light projections in cities worldwide.” ³Jenny has been doing this for a number of years now and has returned to some of the same cities and put up new projections a year or two after she originally did it. Most of these projections are projected over huge buildings, many important buildings and the words are so large that they do not fit on the building but continue down to the ground in front of the building. Holzer does not use the same small phrases like she does when she uses LED lights; instead she uses poems, works from various books or authors who have given her permission to use their work. Because the work is displayed on public buildings in full view of anyone that happens to walk by, one cannot anticipate the response, you never know how someone will react. Holzer herself stated “I think it’s literally as effective or ineffectual as it ever was. Sometimes it works, sometimes it makes people run the other way”(4).  The subject matter Holzer chooses to use has an impact on where the art will go. Holzer researches the location, the cities history or social connectivity to decide what text will compliment the environment it is displayed.  For example a quote about the bible fits a church setting best. It is not just some random quote written across a random building. The text has meaning to the building and they go well together. Because text is not an image the language in which it is written has to get the point across and be as effective as an image. Images can easily convey emotion and can easily tell someone what the point is. Writing and words are a lot harder to convey emotion and affect someone. The powerful choice of words is very important, Jenny has mastered it” for an artist whose eye-riveting messages flashed from walls, floors and kiosks”(5) The ability to make the same impact as an image is incredible. The fact that her art is on such a huge scale helps the message. Unfortunately because the art is projected onto buildings, the artwork is able to be seen to its full effect as night time when it is dark and the words are clearly displayed. This may in itself limit the audience and the candid viewers who happen to walk by.

            Jenny Holzer’s most popular work is the Truism work she did. Truism is a little single sentence that states a fact about society and people in general. An example of one of these would be ‘a little knowledge goes a long way’. They can be thought of as “stream-of-consciousness provocations.” (6) These small statements in a way can almost be considered society’s proverbs. Often displayed so they look like advertisements, one cannot help but ask, what is that?”  Some of the truisms are easy to understand and pick apart at first glance, others invite you to generate a closer, longer look to truly understand what is trying to be said, almost like a riddle. They cannot be taken seriously, just treat them as small observations of society as a whole. What are the things society praise, look down on or appreciate. One best describes them as “Multitudes of people have seen them, read them, laughed at them, and been provoked by them.”(7) The truisms can be fun to read and convey wisdom and you feel like you are learning about the world and how society is portrayed as you read them.

            In conclusion Jenny Holzer has gained a huge fan base through her glowing light displays, and she has brought a fresh of clean air to the art world. Text not images is the focal point and contemplating is the outcome. The art work Holzer makes does not have a potential targeted viewer, her work is out there for all to see, inspect and dissect. The more you dissect the more you begin to understand what the words in front of you mean and the message you are receiving. Holzer has brought together a fun atmosphere to her art and a way to communicate to the world.

Overall artist statement

I have not done much artwork since middle school, so this semester my art work has been a rebirth of my creativity. Everything in class was new to me and i explored my creative side. Each piece of my artwork reflects that. I love color in my art and most of my projects contained color work especially the candy project. I think that was the reason i chose to work with candy as my theme was because of the different  colors. The animation project made my creativity come alive through ways i did not expect. The convergence of storytelling and photography helped me with my notalgic feelings of when i was a child and played games with my dolls and toys and gave these dead items life. My creativity and artwork is still a work n process but i am liking the journey so far and hope to continue and surprise myself.

animation link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W26dPkNNx8

2 sentence statement – project 6

A profile to me is not just a picture of someone it is somethng to get to know the person. By showing images of my interests as well of items from my childhood through to present time my artwork became more personal fo the viewer as well as the artist.

2 sentence statement – project 5

Storytelling is the first thing i think of when i think of animation, by making my own story to come across of a wooden mans day and his annoyances and things in life that he enjoys such as his friends. Taking images of a wooden man and his interactions with items.

2 sentence statement – project 4

Researching Jenny Holzer gave me a change to understand art installations on a huge dimension, using buildings as the canvas was new to me and gave me extraordinary insight into there are no bounds when art is concerned. By documenting her work and the themes Jenny Holzer repeats through her art work through one presentation.

2 sentence statement – project 3

Days are full or irrelevant things such as going to the post office, bye making an image diary of where i went what i bought the small items of the day become the main items. By scanning items such as a chip packet or a reciept or a book cover, the daily escapades however boring become huge.

2 sentence statement -project 2

Feeling a little nostalgic i chose candy and the relevance of their distinguishable elements such the shape. By erasing one of the candy shapes the distinguishing feature is gone and the candy can be any candy.

2 sentence statement – Project 1

Raining cats and dogs was the metaphor i chose to represent because everybody understands it and can relate to it. In order to execute this i used the gestalt principles of proximity and anomally.

response to Chapter 3

Response to Chapter 3
Digital art is still considered a new art form; it is still in its early stages. The digital medium combines the human and machine together as one medium. Having the human manipulate the digital medium combines two mediums therefore producing a mixed media work. This new relationship has brings great aspects to the world of art. Complete originality and the idea to use this new piece of technology to create a piece of art that is not a physical representation. You cannot touch a file, it is not a tangible being yet it does display the same things a physical piece of work displays. Digital art therefore consists of many themes some of which are telepresence, mapping and artificial life.
Telepresence can best be described as any form of telecommunication. Fax, telephone, television have all been used throughout history to use as art. The internet is by far the one with the most possibilities. There are so many portals, doors and opportunities to create art with the internet, it is almost infinite. Instead of getting people to a show to see your artwork by parading it on the internet on a public website, it brings the possibility of having your own artwork shared with millions of strangers all around the world. Not only does this in itself make the internet a great medium yet it also provides the personal feel to the project. People sat at school computers or computers in their own home can have access and relate the project on an extremely personal level in the comfort of their own homes. Issues remain though, privacy over the internet is a long going battle, the online community breaks barriers and can manipulate your projects as they see fit. It does produce many blessings in the art world yet also causes problems for the creators also.
Mapping is forever changing especially in the digital realm. Its advantages are that it is easily customized to how you see fit. Because the internet is huge the spaces need to be mapped in order to navigate. When someone thinks of mapping they instantly think of web browsers and search engines filtering information so that it is easier to retrieve and find. Many artists have challenged this tradition notion of mapping and made their own. One example would be Nancy Paterson. Her artwork is titled ‘Stock market skirt’. It shows a mannequin with a blue dress on it and surrounding this dress are five computers standing on different sized stands. Each computer carries a stock market price, as the prices increase or drop as the stock market increases or drops it causes the hem of the dress to be lowered or raised.
Artificial life is the removal or the ‘life form’ and in its place digital information such as an image or text. The interaction of machines and humans is extremely relevant to this process. The ability to reproduce various characteristics and turn them into units digitally is what Karl Sims artwork is based on. Placing images on screens so when selected they reproduce. To do this a viewer has to touch one of the screens to cause the image to reproduce. The interaction of the human touching and the machine producing images caused by the touch of the human creates an artificial life. The screen is not alive in real life yet in its artificial life by the touch of a human it is brought to life.
In conclusion digital art has many open possibilities and it is great to find artists willing to push the boundaries.