The work of Jenny Holzer caught my eye because she works in text-based art, and that is something I was strongly considering for my project. I have never done any kind of projection, so it was really interesting to see how another artist came up with a text solution. Through my research, I’ve also become really interested in the way graphics move with the shapes they are being projected onto. I am also inspired by Jenny Holzer’s subject matter; in my own art I am often preoccupied with aesthetics, and I admire that she takes important topics on first.
I think Holzer is really concerned with having the everyday viewer being able to understand the work. She focuses on difficult subjects, and projects them right into the eyes of viewers who do not normally stop their day to think about them. Furthermore, she has used a lot of monuments to project her creations, which has the added element of viewers’ familiarity. People will stop and look when something they have such a strong identity with is altered. It is important in that Jenny Holzer is utilizing her art to bring attention to subjects which deserve it. People will ignore hard topics if they can, so it is a noble pursuit to break through the noise for a worthy cause.
The work I chose to examine is her project, “For North Adams,” at Mass MoCa. This is a favorite museum of mine, and so this piece stuck out to me. She took an issue that is prominent in current events, but is bleak, and not only made art of it, but placed it in a public space. She created a really interesting juxtaposition between a messy, disturbing set of text and clean, monochromatic lettering. Her use of the scroll creates a slow movement, and mixed with the letters rising from the water, it creates an immersive experience where the viewer is waiting for the text and truly comprehending the letters. The whole project talks about the recent influx of refugees and the humanitarian crisis that has been created; these texts about war being an everyday experience are projected directly into this American reality which is starkly different than the subject matter.
In terms of what I can learn from Jenny Holzer, my mind goes automatically to the first video I saw of her work. In it, she describes the fact that she will work with locations with glass or water, and these have reflections that are sort of an unknown in the process. I would like to look at her work and how she manipulated these reflections, and possibly use it in my own project. She also mentioned in an interview that the text informs the work and the work informs the text. Holzer says that they must feed into each other, and the design is different for every project. I think this would be important for me to remember when creating my own work. What I might do differently would be the fact that her projects which scroll move pretty slowly. I felt like I was waiting a while to read the messages, so if I were to do a scroll I would up the pace. Something slow like that isn’t really my style. I also noticed that in looking at her projections on her website, she put all the photos in black and white. I would like to inject color into my project, with symbolism, making it so meaning would be lost if translated into black and white.
