Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer is a conceptual artist who lives and works in New York. I first came across her work after reading she had studied with Barbra Kruger and immediately became interested. Holzer is mostly known for her large public displays on billboards, buildings and even landscapes. She uses projection of words to present her views on feminism and society. As well as this she uses a large array of media to present her ideas and statements such as signs, benches, stickers, t-shirts, paintings, sound, light, video ect. Her large scale projections with statements such as ‘There is a fine line between information and propaganda' are intended to provoke public debate. She is also trying to break the boundaries of niche audiences within art, proving that her work can be seen by anyone, anywhere. She also integrates appropriation within her work using LED signs. The signs look like a form of advertising you would see in large cities, which is why she placed them in areas such as times square. However once read the audience can tell it is not an advertisement and questions the intention of the sign. It also points out how easy we can consume information through different media, we walk past advertisements, billboards and automatically read and consume the information and store it. It questions whether consumers today have any real control over the information that is provided to them. I find her work really inspiring as she uses words and presentation to create her art. I have so far added words on photoshop to create my images. I would like to explore and experiment using other means such a projection and possibly in the dark room.