text.... message

One of the great things about the internet is that you can get to see contemporary work - by known AND emerging artists - around the country relatively quickly (if you are willing to spend the time looking...that's the catch). In the old days you'd have to wait for the catalogue or magazine article, or the book.

I like Holzer's large text pieces and this strikes me as a delicious image of one of her latest, created specially for the Guggenheim (wasn't it their re-opening?). It transforms the space, and we all know the shape of the building so well that it connects powerfully. To me. I found it at the ArtDaily newsletter. Bear in mind that (I think) you'd only be able to read this text so clearly from a vantage point close to the projector... the circular shape of the building means that the lettering would be displayed rather differently from an acute side view. I like that about it. Its not fixed, both in the medium, and in its accessibility. Interesting connection with speech, words, etc.

This is a quote from existing texts, quite apt for the current political situation, as we would expect. I have a yearning to see her project positive messages about hope rather than the gloomy words she prefers. Humans do survive incredible things, and it is usually because of hope and faith in the value of life. Positive is powerful.

IMAGE : For the Guggenheim, 2008. Light projection. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Text (pictured) : "Tortures", from View with a Grain of Sand, by Wislawa Szymborska, translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh. Copyright 1003 by Wislawa Szymborska. English translation copyright 1995 by Harcourt, Inc. Used/reprinted with permission of the author. copyright 2008 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

COPYRIGHT ISSUES:

This reminds me, I hear of a bill they have passed in the senate that will effectively change copyright law (if adopted as they are pressing for) - to the detriment of the artist. Check out http://www.owoh.org/index.php to help prevent this from becoming the rule.