Transcript Jenny Holzerx - LaPazColegioWiki2013-2014

Jenny Holzer
GD 102
Westwood College
Mendoza
Jenny Holzer
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American Conceptual Artist
Born 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio
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She attended Ohio University, Rhode
Island School of Design, and the
Independent Study Program at the
Whitney Museum of American Art
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Her medium, whether formulated as a tshirt, as a plaque, or as an LED sign,
always is writing ,and the public dimension
is integral to the delivery of her work.
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Starting in the late 1970s with the posters
that Holzer pasted on buildings in new york
city, and up to her recent projections on
landscape and architecture, her practice
has rivaled ignorance and violence with
humor, kindness, and moral courage.
Early Work
Main focus of her work is the use of words and ideas in public space
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.
Originally utilizing street posters, LED signs became her most visible medium,
though her diverse practice incorporates a wide array of media including
bronze plaques, painted signs, stone benches and footstools, stickers, T-shirts,
paintings, photographs, sound, video, light projection and the Internet
Mature Work
Holzer wrote texts herself between 1977 and
2001. Since 1993, she has been mainly working
with texts written by others
Literary texts by great authors such as the Polish
Nobel Wislawa Szymborska, Henri Cole (USA),
Elfriede Jelinek (Austria), Fadhil Al-Azawi (Iraq),
Yehuda Amichai (Israel) and Mahmoud Darwish
(Palestine)
Holzer's works often speak of violence, oppression, sexuality, feminism, power,
war and death. Her main concern is to enlighten, bringing to light something
thought in silence and was meant to remain hidden.
Holzer's work presents both explicit content and
minimalist aesthetics that make profound statements about
the world of advertising and consumer society today.
By presenting an assemblage of phrases that mimic advertising slogans through
vehicles commonly used in advertising, such as electric billboards, coffee mugs, and
commercials on cable and network television.
Holzer questions what
our eyes can see and what we can't see in media,
whether consumers today have any real control over the
information that is provided to them.