From my initial reaction to the appearance of Holzer's list of truisms, I found I liked how each was formatted. She keeps the font extremely basic, all lower case, but also bold, which I think helps deliver the impact of each message. The neutrality of the letters and page layout highlights the simplicity and straight forwardness of each message. Just as her messages are not flowery or overly decorated, neither is their display.
One thing I did catch myself doing multiple times as I analyzed Holzer's work was interpreting it more from the perspective of someone reading an author's written piece. She concentrates so much on the specific delivery of each message, I found myself forgetting that it was a visual art piece as well. That was why it was most effective to study it as both a visual art piece as well as a significant written form. By doing that I could see her intentions much more for both her display as well as the actual phrases she was writing and how they intertwined.
Her writing is brief, but also extremely to the point. It amazes me how someone can have such an influence with such condensed sentences. I found myself really appreciating this aspect of her truisms. It seemed with some of her statements she could deliver the same impression to an audience it could take other writers pages to compose. For as much as her work seems to provoke deeper thought within her viewers, I think it also very interesting how differently some of them could be interpreted depending on the viewer. By giving the phrases such a simple, uniform appearance, she leaves no distractions or visual interpretations to sway a person's comprehension one way or the other.
The artist of the playing card is a collage and mix media artist named Liz Cohn.
I also felt that Holzer's basic, bold, and blunt font really added the the impact of viewer. I also feel that the red lettering helped depict the strong message Holzner was trying to get across.
ReplyDeleteI also found it amazing that Holzer could say so little and so much at the same time. I find it interesting, and completely understand, how you felt as if you were reading a text instead of viewing art. I feel like every truism sparked a story in my memory. Her simple fragments and sentences created novels in me as I viewed her truisms. I assume this is a similar experience to everyone that views her art.
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