Artist Rooms: Jenny Holzer

There is nothing more inherently thought provoking than words themselves. If you visit the Tate Modern you can walk into a room where every single panel of the white walls, display black ink words, or as the artist calls them, Inflammatory Essays; sentences and statements of a poetic nature that incomprehensibly contradict themselves. On the table in front of you lays a row of silver condoms that read, “men don’t protect you anymore,” surrounded by postcards with tiny sketches and sentences reflective of those on the walls. Beyond this room is a fluorescent digital prism reaching across the entire ceiling of the next, more phrases move along the prism until they disappear into another space. These words are emotional, desperate, full of love and pain; and if you follow them to where they collide with plasterboard you’ll find more, similar, prisms. These ones stand on a vertical diagonal reaching up to the 5th floor of the Tate Modern. The blue writing expresses echoes of political opinion and societal question. In other rooms there are further written expressions and a soldier’s sleeping bag covered in the written word; a piece titled, I’ve Just Been Shot. Elsewhere you will find paintings that again include bold statements that are often political or make societal commentary. Subsequently, there is a series of one-liners, better known as truisms, that you can’t help but read over and over until your view on what you know begins to lose its grasp. It’s almost surreal, the words this artist born in 1950 has written, and how they can have such an effect on your consciousness and reality. Words are a powerful thing, and Jenny Holzer has learned how to use their power on her viewers. It’s truly amazing.

Observing Holzer’s artist room at the Tate is like taking a step into the future, but also a step right into the overlooked realities of the modern day. Recently, through electronic technology, and fluorescent colour schematics, her poetry has been displayed on large geometric, futuristic structures. Many of her political comments are ones that are also being made by the rest of society. For example, the condoms are something that other feminist groups and activists have used before as a visual reminder to women that they are powerful and independent and can protect themselves. Her poetry itself made many present day, political, societal, and environmental statements. Such as, ‘bodies lie in the bright grass, and some are murdered, and some are picnicking.’ Depending on its interpretation, this quote could be a symbolic description of the world itself, as a whole. I imagine western society to be the picnickers, while everyone else, from third world and developing countries, are those that are murdered. And the picnickers just carry on while the rest of the world falls to pieces. Holzer, in all of her political and emotional commentary, is simply using text to describe views, rather than explicitly art. In an interview with dazed magazine, Jenny explained her use of words as an artist. She said, “I went to language because I tried to be a painter and was awful, so I thought ok I will write.” Since the 1970’s Holzer has been pairing words, occasionally not her own, with public spaces, such as the walls of buildings and benches. On a blank wall, within the Artist Room, her inscribed plaques, reflective of her original street posters, were displayed, showing where she originated from, where she gained her popularity, and how she is most commonly known. In general, Holzer’s intentions with her work is quoted by the Tate Modern; “I wanted a lot simultaneously: to leave art outside for the public, to be a painter of mysterious yet ordered works, to be explicit but not didactic, to find the right subjects, to transform spaces, to disorient and transfix people, to offer up beauty, to be funny and never lie.”

Jenny Holzer Truisms

This exhibition made me feel a lot of things, fear, sadness, anger, insanity, happiness, truth; the coinciding emotion simply depended on the words that I read and the meaning that I interpreted. Two truisms in particular caught my attention, one being ‘you are so complex that you don’t always respond to danger’ because I felt like the quote was directed at me; and there were many more truisms, that were entirely different from this and yet still, felt like they had a direct message for my person. And not only that, they made me think, and caused me to go deeper into my brain than I expected upon entering the exhibition. I find that that is the beauty of what Jenny Holzer does with her words, she draws meaning that everyone can relate to or at least understand. The second sentence was one that actually exists within one of her Inflammatory Essays. It read, ‘raise boys and girls the same way,’ which again, is a social and political comment relevant to the state of our world today, and reflective of the fight for gender equality that is occurring internationally. Based on my personal experiences, some truisms had a greater effect on me than others. Some were a true reflection of my thoughts and emotions, only they were expressed artistically through the written word. For instance, Arno 1996, exhibited desperation and pain, emotions that resonated with me based on a selection of my life experiences. I admire the fact that the artist’s writing can adhere to my emotions, and keep my attention well after I have left the museum.

A pic I took of "Floor 2015"

The displays were arranged in a pleasing manor which worked sequentially, disregarding which order the rooms were entered. In particular, Floor 2015, although presented as a structure suspended from the ceiling contradictory to its title, receded into the wall above the entrance to the room where Blue Purple Tilt 2007, a similar structural piece, was shown. However, within the exhibition it would have been nice to see titles and further description or background on each of the works that were displayed. Upon writing this review I found myself conducting research in search of information that should have been accessible and provided at the exhibition itself, such as the titles of works, and the artists intentions.

Overall, I think that the Tate Modern museum successfully orchestrated this exhibition for its viewers. Jenny’s intentions were well described by the displays. I would recommend that anyone who appreciates the beauty of the written word take the time to experience Artist Rooms: Jenny Holzer, before it expires in the coming months; anyone who wants to question and revisit their experiences and how they can be expressed through words; and anyone who wants to think about the world. Because words are a powerful thing.

Exhibition Open Until July 7th 2019.

References:

• Kane, A (2018) Dazed http://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/40763/1/free-jenny-holzer-truisms-inflamatory-essays-exhibition-london-s-tate-modern (October 14, 2018)

• Phillips, E (2018), It’s Nice That https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/jenny-holzer-artist-rooms-tate-modern-exhibition-240718 (October 14, 2018)

• Tate (2018) https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/artist-rooms-jenny-holzer (October 13, 2018)

• Tate (2018) https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/artist-rooms-jenny-holzer/exhibition-guide (October 13, 2018)

Blue Purple Tilt 2007