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Holzer Jenny Was born on the 29th of July in 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio. She studied humanities at the Duke University and the University of Chicago and then studied fine arts at the Ohio University, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Holzer was originally an abstract artist, focusing on painting and printmaking; after moving to New York City in 1977, she began working with text as art. She was also an active member of the artists group Colab. Holzer is mostly known for her artistic use of words put in public space, she uses billboard advertisements, LED screens, bronze slabs, painted signs, wooden benches, footstools, stickers, T-shirts, condoms, paintings, photographs, sound, video, light projections and the Internet. The artist created her texts herself between 1977 and 2001, however, since 1993 she has also used texts of famous writers from around the world, such as Wisława Szybmorska, Henri Cole, Elfirede Jelinek, Fadhil Al-Azzawi, Yehuda Amichai, Mahmoud Darwish. Holzer has also used fragments of documents of the United States Army from the war in Iraq. Holzer's works often speak of violence, oppression, sexuality, feminism, power, war and death. Her main concern is to enlighten, bring to light something thought in silence and was meant to remain hidden. Works by Holzer enjoy huge popularity – from her first exhibitions Truisms, created from 1977, until her last creations – huge inscriptions showed on buildings of world metropolises, presenting simple statements of great impact. |
For KrakowCzesław Miłosz’s poetry was projected in the form of scrolling light onto location in the city, on the walls of the Royal Castle at Wawel Hill and on the surface of the nearby Vistula river. Jenny Holzer has realized light projections worldwide. Krakow joined cities like Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and New York City as sites of these affecting and demonstrative public artworks. Holzer’s practice involves the particularities of communities and how public spaces affect life there. She chooses locations for her light projections where people gather regularly. In Krakow, the site was historical and symbolic location that had cultural and political functions. Holzer treats public spaces as a common arena where communication still is possible. Presenting large-format projections allows the artist to engage in a dialogue about how the site and perception impact meaning. Though projections cover spaces and words become monumental, their pace and movement can, at brief moments, make them difficult to grasp. Light slides over buildings and slowly travels next to, and even on, us. What seems immaterial can be experienced almost physically. The poems had been selected very carefully to construct an immersive environment of ideas, moods, and feelings. The artist's projects bring to mind the strategies of the news media and advertising. She has used and given new qualities to posters, t-shirts, and pulsating LEDs. In Krakow, places that were often visited without reflection had been given a new history and inflection when poems selected from the nearly 70-year oeuvre of Miłosz were projected there. Holzer also had used the poems of Wisława Szymborska, which she values for their crucial and universal themes such as war, love, and alienation. Though she trained and began as an abstract artist, Jenny Holzer moved to text as her medium. She has said, “I wanted to be explicit about things, and it became clear that the only other way for me to do it was to use language. People can understand you when you say or write something”[1]. When Holzer uses her own texts, she shares with the audience thoughts and information on political and social beliefs. Her sentences can be aggressive, moving, suggestive, and personal. In her use of language, she wishes to be as true, complete, and precise as possible. Holzer leans towards the difficult issues, those that are painful and shocking. We may find here a common point between the interests of the artist and the writer, as Miłosz’s poetry is valued for offering metaphysical experiences based on a feeling of unspecified defeat and the awareness of threat. Which of Miłosz’s poems have the power to stop us for a moment? Is it his poetry, his intensified communication? Or is it a text in which each line offers something important? Holzer reflected on her audience and wanted to offer something worthwhile. Her process involved choosing, ordering, and assimilating texts so that even a short passage gave an image of entirety. She offered a communal experience to the audience. Something was shared, but its personal and individual impact could never be predicted. Curators: Małgorzata Gołębiewska, Marcin Gołębiewski, coordinaion: Agata Grabowiecka, Mirka Bałazy For Krakow instalation is a part of Liberated Miłosz – Czesław Miłosz Year celebration in Kraków, which is operated by Instytut Książki. Projcet subsidised with funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.   |
10 - 24/06/2011
21:00 For Krakow
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