Jenny Holzer’s extensive list of truisms represented the power a single sentence can hold. When researching Holzer’s work, I learned her phrases are often projected onto different mediums (such as buildings) in order to make the audience critically think. The juxtaposition of some of the truisms on the website such as
“children are the most cruel of all”
“children are the hope of the future”
create a tension in the viewer.
When examining Holzer’s pieces, it forces me to examine and question what art really is. In previous class discussion, the argument arose if art can be its own entity or is it always representative of other ideas. Jenny Holzer’s pieces, for me personally, defend the idea that art can stand alone. Her use of text and projections represent how art has evolved into its own form. Though, I do understand how some viewers could have difficulty understanding this as art.
The emphasis on text throughout the past week has allowed me to realize the how a set of a few words can be representative of a complicated idea, thus creating conceptual art. Holzer’s use of simplicity in her work reminded me of Yves Klein’s work of color. His work here is simply titled “Blue”.
I think your choice of "Blue" is actually intriguing, because before learning more about conceptual art, I would not have considered this something to think about, but perhaps what Klein intended was to not only emphasize the color's simplicity, but the actual complexities that come with the color. It's used in symbols good and bad, and has a different context for literally everyone. And yet it's just a color. Like Holzer's statements, they're just words, but once you get behind the concept it's something else entirely.
ReplyDeleteAfter viewing Holzer's work on the website and viewing the video on her artwork last class meeting, I also am drawn to how simple, and sometimes controversial, phrases like the two you have selected in your post, can yield so much meaning yet stand alone. Some art, that is much more complicated, needs explaining. We need to try hard to understand the idea that the artist is presenting. Holzer's truisms spell it out, literally. Using contradictory phrases like the ones you have shown above is interesting because we know we are not just getting her personal opinions. We see that she is speaking for all of us (which is why I think she stopped using her own words in 2001). Her art is not laced with her own ideas, it stands alone and speaks for itself (and us). The image you have included really illustrates your thoughts about Holzer. Thanks!
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