Although my thesis is specific to interactive art, mostly
video games and online art, Jenny Holzer use of text in public spaces are
interesting, provocative and to extent interactive. All art is interactive; the
reaction and mental process that the spectator or viewer experiences through
the interaction from the form and concept of the work.
xenon on bregenz’ alte pfarrkirche zum heiligen
nikolaus, lech, 2004
Jenny Holzer was born in Ohio, 1950. Holzer is critically
examining the means to disseminate her ideas within public space, the impact of
information on the individual psyche, on how we think and how we communicate. She
has been taking her messages to the streets and in public buildings, using media
and technology that would enable her work to blend into the physical and social
landscape. Her work often blends in among advertisements in public space e.g.
New York Times Square.
xenon on berlin’s matthäikirche, 2001
I love her work with electronic LED signs and especially
projections of xenon light. Holzer
writes her own text and often appropriates texts from poetry and other sources.
Holzer address issues that are thought in silence or are behind closed doors,
meant to remain hidden. She evokes questioning of consumerist urges, violence,
oppression, lamenting death and disease, power, sexuality and feminism. Holzer’s use of language provokes a response and
enlightenment in the viewer. The text functions as comments on the environment they
are projected onto, stimulating awareness of our social conditioning as
conveyed by the very landscape in which we may be confronted by them.
xenon on baltic centre for contemporary art,
gateshead, england, 2000
Link below is a video of one her works:
Excerpt of Jenny Holzer, Truisms (1977-79)
“a little knowledge can go a long way
a
lot of professionals are crackpots
a
man can't know what it is to be a mother
a
name means a lot just by itself
a
positive attitude means all the difference in the world
a
relaxed man is not necessarily a better man
a
sense of timing is the mark of genius
a
sincere effort is all you can ask
a
single event can have infinitely many interpretations....”
More works:
Jenny Holzer, Washington, 2004
Jenny Holzer, New York, 2004
- Jade
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