Jenny Holzer Projections Jenny Holzer’s medium is language. Since the
For MASS MoCA, Holzer uses the projectors and
late 1970s, she has presented her text-based work in
the building’s structure to create an immersive environ-
public spaces, drawing attention to forms of power
ment. With two projectors mounted on opposite walls
and control that affect our lives in ways both obvious
of the gallery and facing each other, the light floods
and barely perceptible.
the room and transforms the gallery into a meeting
The underground, interactive nature of much of
place animated by moving bodies and text. While the
her work — w hich is often exhibited outside traditional
texts systematically scroll like credits at the end of a
museum spaces and made available to a wide and
film, letters expand and contract, and words seem to
sometimes unsuspecting public — i s a vital aspect of
escape their once-determined order. Meanings shift
her practice. In her first series Truisms (1977–79),
depending on the viewer’s perspective.
Holzer circulated aphorisms (‘Abuse of Power Comes
In an adjoining gallery at the back of the projec-
as No Surprise,’ ‘Money Creates Taste’) by printing
tion space, Holzer has installed a series of “map”
them on posters and anonymously posting them
paintings of formerly classified government docu-
throughout downtown Manhattan. Distilling many
ments. Made available to the public through the
voices and ideas into digestible, contradictory state-
Freedom of Information Act, the maps were originally
ments in alphabetized lists, the works leave viewers
part of a United States Central Command PowerPoint
to determine for themselves the meaning and author-
briefing. They illustrate various planning stages and
ity of the words.
scenarios proposed prior to the invasion of Iraq. Holzer
Since the beginning of her career, Holzer has
enlarged the original documents and silkscreened
written thirteen text series. Although they address a
them in black on meticulously prepared oil-on-linen
range of issues and situations from multiple viewpoints,
grounds. The artist’s choice to embed the official
Holzer’s artwork is often political. She addresses
documents within fields of colors, ranging from purples
brutality and oppression, including violence against
to greens and grays, hints at an emotional register
women and children and the horrors of war. Created
often obscured by the otherwise bureaucratic presen-
at the height of the AIDS epidemic, her series Laments
tations of war. For more information pertaining to the
(1989) imagines the voices of the dead. The artist first
documents depicted in the paintings, please visit:
presented the texts on sarcophagi and L.E.D. (light
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv.
emitting diode) signs at the Dia Art Foundation in 1989.
In the upstairs mezzanine gallery, a four-element
(Electronic signs became central to her practice after
work titled Wish List / Gloves Off reproduces redacted
the Truisms appeared on Times Square’s Spectacolor
documents pertaining to interrogation methods. A
sign in 1982.)
captain in the US Army’s human intelligence division
Holzer has continued to integrate new communi-
had requested a “wish list” of “innovative interrogation
cation technologies into her practice. Since 1996, she
techniques that would prove more successful than
has used powerful light projectors to throw text onto
current methods.” The “wish list” depicted is a
building façades and landscapes all over the world.
summary of the “alternative” techniques that the
For PROJECTIONS, her installation in MASS MoCA’s
4th Infantry Division devised — i ncluding phone book
Building 5 gallery, Holzer brings the medium indoors.
strikes, low-voltage electrocution and muscle fatigue
The texts projected here will change throughout the
inducement. The accompanying three-page email
run of the exhibition: please visit the museum’s web
chain encapsulates an internal debate over the legiti-
page for notices of text changes.
macy of these practices. While one soldier declares,