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Larger Image |
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Title |
Inflammatory Essays, page detail. |
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Creator |
Holzer, Jenny (American conceptual artist and sculptor, born 1950) |
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Date |
1980-1984 |
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Cultural Context |
American
North American |
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Style/Period |
Conceptual
Contemporary
Postmodern |
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Subject |
Posters
Broadsides
Advertisements
Advertising
Language
Lettering (Layout features) |
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Description |
"Jenny Holzer extended the use of language in art to another dimension by presenting words alone; for the viewer, looking and reading became one and the same act. […] In graduate school at the Rhode Island School of Design in the mid-1970s, [Holzer] came closer to discovering her own voice in anonymous public projects at the beach or in Providence and in collecting captioned diagrams. On moving to New York to participate in the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program in 1976-77, she realized that she loved captions even more than diagrams. Her desire to use language as her medium, to do public pieces in an urban environment, and 'to be very explicit about things' culminated in the Truisms, begun in 1977. […] These flatly worded one-liners […] were Holzer's highly condensed renditions of the profundities she had gleaned through extensive readings during the Whitney program. Some seemed to reflect a male point of view, others a woman's perspective. Truisms made their debut in anonymous offset posters that she wheat-pasted on walls in downtown New York. They may seem brash and assaultive in her later electronic signs placed in museums, but one must imagine the initial impact of these seemingly official notices when encountered unexpectedly by someone walking through the city. In the 1980s Holzer went further in her bypass of traditional systems of art distribution by putting Truisms on T-shirts, hats, and the large Spectacolor board in Times Square. In response to criticism that the diverse attitudes in Truisms canceled each other out, Holzer filled her next series, Inflammatory Essays, with 'hot, flaming, nasty things … [that] need to have an underground format for immediacy.' Each of these explosive broadsides - presented in a standardized format of one hundred words, twenty lines long - tackles a universal issue such as torture, poverty, or freedom. The calculated extremism of her statements in the Essays provokes her audience to clarify their own positions in regard to the expressed views. As a second-generation feminist, she has produced art that has less to do with what Holzer calls the 'womens-lot' themes of the initial movement and more to do with global politics." (Excerpt, pp.140-142); "Jenny Holzer has adopted various media of advertisement and power, including the poster and the light sign - a medium associated with both advertisement and presentations of the official news of the patriarchal state - to present messages that subvert the conventional pronouncements that the media themselves lead one to expect." (Excerpt, p.195) |
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Material |
Ink on colored paper
Ink
Paper (fiber product) |
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Measurements |
20 parts, each 17 x 17 in. |
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Technique |
Printing (process)
Writing (processes) |
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Inscription |
The text of this Inflammatory Essay reads: DON'T TALK DOWN TO ME. DON'T BE POLITE TO ME. DON'T TRY TO MAKE ME FEEL NICE. DON'T RELAX. I'LL CUT THE SMILE OFF YOUR FACE. YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON. YOU THINK I'M AFRAID TO REACT. THE JOKE'S ON YOU. I'M BIDING MY TIME, LOOKING FOR THE SPOT. YOU THINK NO ONE CAN REACH YOU, NO ONE CAN HAVE WHAT YOU HAVE. I'VE BEEN PLANNING WHILE YOU'RE PLAYING. I'VE BEEN SAVING WHILE YOU'RE SPENDING. THE GAME IS ALMOST OVER SO IT'S TIME YOU ACKNOWLEDGE ME. DO YOU WANT TO FALL NOT EVER KNOWING WHO TOOK YOU? |
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Work Type |
Prints
Broadsides
Posters |
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Source |
Rosen, Randy, and Catherine C. Brawer. Making Their Mark: Women Artists Move into the Mainstream, 1970-85. New York: Abbeville Press, 1989. (p.142, pl.132) |
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Rights |
Photography credit: Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York. Compilation [of Rosen] copyright © 1989 Maidenform, Inc. |
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Digital Publisher |
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center |
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Format |
image/jpeg |
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Digital File Name |
VRC 898-04.jpg |
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Rating |
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