T-shirt worn by lady pink, New York, 1983
Jenny Holzer
When I choose art and audience as the topic I thought it was such an interesting topic to talk about. For many generations the perception of art has been an outrageous debate on how one acknowledges an artwork. Depending on how and where the artist exhibits the work relies on how the work is viewed by the audience. For example having an artwork of various forms exhibited in a gallery one is engaging with the work as a personal interest to art. On the other hand having an artwork displayed in public areas, landscape architecture forces the audience to engage to look at the work.
Jenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist. She was born in 1950 Gallipolis Ohio. She moved to New York in the 1970 and began working creating text based artworks.
In various places around the world she displays texts using LED on landscapes, building; streets, rivers and oceans throughout Europe and America. Her work is publicly shown, the audience forcefully engages with her texts whether or not one is interested in art. Located in public spaces the spectator is being forced to acknowledge the sentences allowing them to engaged and have a personal response.
"I started the work as a parody, like the Great Ideas of the Western World in a nutshell," to make "big issues in culture intelligible as public art." She challenges the public to take position deciding whether they agree or not with what is being stated. She portrays a strong tone with the text that’s forces the reader to stop and enage.
During the 1970s she began her series truisms. The above two photo images are text from this series. The text "The abuse of powere comes as no suprise" was displayed in various areas and forms. Topic areas that she usually writes about in this period and displays are themes of war, money, violence, sex. The experiences, issues activities in life that continuously moves on and how it affects society over time. She wants the audience to take part of the text as a reminder of issues in society. She completed a few series in her art practice and all contain text aiming to the public and how the audiences enages within her work. She has completed a few series in her art practice some are Truisms, Lustmord, Inflammtory essays. Each series focuses on various issues which is significant to Holzer.
The link below are some of the quotes stated by her throughout the Truisms period.
Read my lips, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman. National art Gallery of Australia, Canberra ACT 2600, 1998, Edited by Pauline Green.
Jenny Holzer, Phaidon Press Limited, London, 1998.
http://www.o-matic.com/public_art/holzer.html (The above stated quote).
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