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| Vintage photo of graffiti artist Lady Pink wearing a shirt made for her by Holzer, featuring a line from Truisms |
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| Jenny Holzer's Inflammatory Essays |
For this unit in art we are specifically focusing on street, and it worked out that the artist I wanted to highlight in my blog post did a
lot of street art. Her name is Jenny Holzer and she started publicly
posting her art around 1977 and is still currently doing so. The main
themes of her work is violence, oppression, power, war, feminism, and
death. Holzer's main goal is to shed light on ideas that have been
kept silenced.
Her first project was called Truisms and it is probably her most
famous to date. She would go around NYC hang up these posters, carve
them into benches, and she printed them on shirts as well. Truisms were basically a list of one line phrases she had come up with based
on the writings of authors she was reading as a student.
Her next project, which is my favorite, is called Inflammatory Essays
(1978). She wrote these after reading writings of fascist and
communist leaders, and would write some of them in their voice, like
making satire in a way. Each poster had exactly 100 words and 20
lines. She would distribute post these in neighborhoods of NYC, she
said, "putting the scarier ones in the richer parts of town". Holzer
made printed them on different colors, basically signalizing that it
would be a series of posters.
She would later start to get asked to post her work on buildings.
Holzer also does a lot with lighting, including projecting her work
onto buildings. Her last project was in 2011. I picked her because I
found her art a few months ago and I really fell in love with reading
her inflammatory essays, and then got into a lot of the other public
work she had done.
Questions:
1. What do you think could the negative effects of being so blatantly
political in art?
2. Do you think artists should make the public see the world their
way or the publics?
3. What do you think has a bigger impact in art: a broad message or a
specific message.
-Amanda
I think a specific message has a bigger impact because a specific message is clearly laid out to the audience and can be easily processed as well. However, if an artist creates a broad message it becomes harder to understand since so many people will come up with their own meaning of the picture causing controversy over the picture. But if it is a specific message it is clearly understandable and will not leave people confused unlike a broad message.
ReplyDeleteI don't think artists can "make" people see the world their way but I think they can share their view of the world with the public so in that aspect I think that artists should be able to "make" the public see the world their way. I think that artists should be able to "make" the public see the world their way because in the end art is just another form of self-expression and everyone is entitled o express themselves in this way.
ReplyDelete-Derrick Mayfield
I think that artists can make people see the world their way. They can do this by creating an artwork that has a specific message. An artwork with a specific message allows the viewer to see think in the way that the artist was thinking. When the viewer does that, they are thinking in a different way than they might have been thinking before they viewed the art work. Artwork is a form of self-expression and it can change the way that people see things in the world.
ReplyDelete-Rafael Vallejo
I think the negative effects of being so straightforward about politics in art is that it makes people like you less. Many people think art is just an anesthetic, but when you force them to think and tell them what to think, they probably aren't very fond of it. I think it's good though, to be blatantly political in art, because politicians are just crafty liars. Saying what you want in the simplest words is a good policy they should follow up on, and artists are the people to show us that art isn't just about making something beautiful. I think what Jenny Holzer did was a really good thing for politics and just her environment in general, because not only is she giving people something to look at, she's prompting them to think. Unlike Banksy who contrives ways to get his message across, I think what she's doing is really effective, especially for those who don't have time to interpret meanings.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the only way to get your message across is to throw it in someones face. That is exactly what many street artist do! It is very effective in getting their personal message to the public.
ReplyDelete