American artist Jenny Holzer examines the political, philosophical and narrative possibilities of language.
This display of work by Jenny Holzer forms part of a collection of international contemporary art jointly owned by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. It is known as ARTIST ROOMS and focuses on individual rooms devoted to particular artists. Holzer’s text-based works draw upon a diversity of subjects, voices and contradictory political and philosophical positions. Since the 1970s she has found a range of different ways to disseminate these texts, from printed fliers to projections and luminous LED signs. ‘The more sparkling the work, the more it is like the signs in Las Vegas’, she has said.
BLUE PURPLE TILT, which was created specially for ARTIST ROOMS, consists of seven double-sided vertical LED signs. Its scale emphasises that this is a sculptural object in its own right. Indeed, the viewer’s response may be shaped as much by the hypnotic glow of the letters streaming smoothly or flashing abruptly as it is by the words themselves.
all photos and text by Antonis Kozakidis