Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer is an American artist most known for her word art, and use of public spaces for displaying art. She was first recommended to me by one of my professors when they found out I was working on my Terms and Agreement piece. As Holzer has done a lot of work with projection and projecting text.

Projection and light have always been an interesting form of art to me, as it has the potential to give movement to a still form and allows color to be temporarily painted over rooms, people, and large objects in a uniquely visual way. Holzer uses it in a way that allows her to take an everyday space and transform it into a canvas. Painting with light and words across important landmarks and buildings. 

Though I had originally started researching Holzer for their use of projection in art. Two pieces that I ended up being really drawn to were BLUE PURPLE TILT and Truisms. Both use LED signs to display text, instead of projection. These signs are typically used for advertising and just like with Meow Wolf’s Omega mart I found myself drawn to this idea of using this medium from the viewers’ everyday world. 

It’s easy to see Holzer’s influence in my own two projection pieces, but they influenced my consumption series as well, even if not as directly. Their work with words always lingered in the back of my mind as I designed my parody objects, keeping me mindful of the language I chose to use and where I was pulling it from. How the wording affected the tone of my pieces just as much as the visual choices did.