Jenny Holzer is an American artist best known for her work with LED displays and large scale text projections. Her work has been displayed globally and often portrays and political theme current with the social environment at the time of the exhibition.
This is a picture of Kurt Cobain standing in front of one of Jenny’s early displays. The theme of utilizing common advertising space for he work is what inspired her to experiment with LED’s based on how prevalent LED signs had become in advertising. This brought a sense of contemporary familiarity to her work which drew in people’s attention just as advertisements do.
Her early work included a list of what she described as “Truisms” or quite simply just short statements. These were simple phrases which resonated personally and politically with people. Often these phrases ended up on shirts, stickers, and even condoms. An example of some of her many truisms include:
“Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise”
“A Lot of Professionals Are Crackpots”
“Boredom Makes You Do Crazy Things”
This is a 535-foot-long sign in the Gutenberg displaying Holzer’s Inflammatory Essays, the follow-up series to Truisms, which featured whole paragraphs of text, centering on taboo subjects. Jenny made us of the already existing architecture in the room to fully display her designs and create an additional element.
An additional example of her work with LED’s exemplifying the motion with the shape of the LED strip she uses.
An example of one of her “Truisms” displayed in the corner of a room utilizing the shadows and angles to create a feeling of darkness. The light being emitted from the LED’s creates they’re own shadows and the angles and which they are displayed dictates where the shadow will fade in with the rest of the room.
Holzer is also famous for her projections onto various buildings and architectural landmarks. Her work has been displayed from NYC to Europe and everywhere in between. These works are most often political relating to a current ongoing issue in society. Below is a video of Jenny discussing her work with projections.
This is one of her projections onto one of the Guggenheim buildings. She talks about how when she sets up a projection she can predict some reflections from windows and rivers, but you never really know exactly where the light and shadows will fall.
This is a piece in Washington related to the war in Iraq. Holzer often wrote politcal statements in public statements to raise awareness for causes such as war, hunger, and disease. Jenny is a master at using her voice in her art to combat the wrong she sees in the world, and utilizing light art brings a modernized mechanical twist which is highly enjoyed by her audience.