Jenny Holzer
Some Treatment, 2014-2019
Long Lake Estates
Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoosick Falls, New York.
Jenny Holzer’s truisms, such as “Abuse of power comes as no surprise” and “Protect me from what I want,” have appeared on posters, billboards, and even condoms, and as LED signs and monumental light projections. Whether questioning consumerism, describing torture, or lamenting death and disease, her use of language (sometimes mistaken for advertising when installed in public spaces) is designed to agitate and disturb. Holzer’s recent work ranges from silk-screened paintings of declassified government memos to a large-scale poetry and light installation in the lobby of 7 World Trade Center, New York. In 1990, Holzer received the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale.
Modern computer systems became an important component in Holzer's work in 1982, when nine of her "Truisms" flashed at forty-second intervals on the giant Spectacolor electronic signboard in Times Square. Sponsored by the Public Arts Fund program, the use of the L.E.D. (light emitting diode) machine allowed Holzer to reach a larger audience. To some people, however, Holzer’s large scale and expensive exhibits became elitist.
Her more recent exhibits drew inspiration from declassified government files pertaining to detainees in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
For more than 30 years, Jenny Holzer's name has stood for a conceptual art that questions our perceptions and the way we are influenced by media and politics. Holzer has made LED signs her trademark. These text displays, designed to captivate and sway passersby, have been repurposed by Holzer since the early 1980s.
The text-based art of Jenny Holzer appears in places one wouldn't expect to find it. On t-shirts, billboards, parking meters and LED signs (Holzer's signature medium), her stark one-liners call attention to social injustice and shed light on dark corners of the human psyche.