Project 2 - Research

Artist Research

Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer is an artist who is well renowned for her text-based artworks. These texts have covered numerous subjects, such as “questioning consumerist impulses, describing torture, or lamenting death and disease” (art21). These works have been produced on everyday objects such as posters to the less predictable object, such as condoms. Many of her largest works include those on LED signs or projected using xenon light.

Holzer’s first public works were Truisms. Created in the late 1970s and continuing into the 80s, Holzer developed over 300 slogans that were spread across the public sphere. Initially, Holzer’s Truisms were spread through the use of stickers, t-shirts and posters. During later years, Holzer began using electronic displays to present her slogans. Holzer’s slogans are based on “commonly held truths and clichés” (TATE.com).

Truisms, 1984

As technology became more advanced, so did Holzer’s forms of presentation. In 2008, Holzer projected a series of texts she chose from the poetic works of Wislawa Szymborska onto the faces of several Chicago buildings including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Lyric Opera House and the Tribune Tower (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago).

Chicago, 2001

In an interview for art21, Holzer speaks about her work: “I like my pieces to be very short at moments. And other times I want them to be sustained and capable of holding people’s interests.” Though her works are visual in the sense of reading text, they are as powerful as if they had been strictly visual. I find Holzer’s projections to be as moving as the movement of the text itself. Within her Truisms and projections, Holzer’s “use of language provokes a response in the viewer” (art21).

Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/jenny-holzer
www.jennyholzer.com
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/holzer-truisms-t03959

 

Ann Hamilton

Ann Hamilton is a projection artist and sculptor. On occasions, her works intertwine both projection and a semblance of the sculptural. She uses the context produced by the setting in which the artwork is placed to deepen the meaning or emotion behind the work.

In Ghost… A Border Act (2000), Hamilton created an installation that took place in an abandoned textile factory. Videos Hamilton created were projected on to large semi-transparent sheets of fabric suspended from the ceiling of the factory. One of the videos was a five minute recording involving a pencil and a piece of paper that has been drawn upon. When the video starts, the process of drawing occurs in reverse, the graphite becoming reabsorbed by the pencil. Whereas the video of the pencil and graphite rejoining could be seen as symbolic, the message is made more powerful by the joining of the semi-transparent textile to the room where similar fabrics were made.

Another of her works, a series titled Face to Face (2001), is an ongoing series of photographs Hamilton has created using a pinhole camera that the artists has fashioned to rest on her tongue. When she opens her mouth, the film held within the tiny camera takes the image from the perspective of her mouth. Subjects in these photographs ranged from friends, relatives, and landscapes. All were framed by the contours of Hamilton’s lips. When one looks at a photograph in a scrapbook or photobook, they can apply the knowledge that the image comes from the perspective of the eye. When one looks at one of Hamilton’s photographs, however, they have to re-evaluate their understanding of where the perspective comes from.

Face To Face
Face To Face 44

Hamilton’s works relate to my idea in that the context in which the artwork is placed adds or emphasizes the meaning behind the artwork itself. We take for granted that the pencil was made with graphite, that the fabric is available for us to use, and that photographs give us a new perspective, but Hamilton’s work emphasize what was done to produce that which we take for granted.

Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/ann-hamilton
www.annhamilton.com