The artist Jenny Holzer has used epigrams, Truisms as she tags them, to mesmerising and energising effect. Whether fly-posted, lit up in LED, digitally animated or projected on landmark buildings at epic scale, her wry – and now overtly political – observations, and meme-inducing calls to action, appropriated absurdities and wrenching poetry have made Holzer a genuine cultural force.
In our October 2019 issue – on newsstands now – we visit Holzer at her Brooklyn studio, where she is mixing paint and politics, turning Trump-era redacted reports – from the Mueller investigation to released records of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking and trading – into giant abstractions. For an artist who once wanted to paint like Rothko, they are a kind of reconnection, her own searing take on American sublime.
‘If you do the kind of work that might possibly effect change, why not?’ – Jenny Holzer
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