Women in Art Spotlight: Jenny Holzer & The Language Arts
All Fall
All Fall (2012) - Array of five double-sided LED Signs with stainless steel housings: blue and green diodes on front, red and yellow diodes on back 103 1/2 x 95 x 103 1/2 in. (262.9 x 241.3 x 262.9 cm) Collection of the Akron Art Museum Museum Acquisition Fund with funds from The Mary S. and Louis S. Myers Endowment Fund for Painting and Sculpture 2018.14 © 2023 Jenny Holzer / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
In the 1970s Jenny Holzer began papering lower Manhattan with posters bearing selections from her Truisms series— slogan-like sayings suggestive of a universal truth, such as THE ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE. Known for these conceptual, text-based works that question consumerism and challenge power dynamics, Holzer intends to provoke critical dialogue through her use of language. Like many other marquees in New York City, the artist utilizes the programmable, eye-popping power of the light-emitting diode or LED.
Presented here on a series of scrolling LED arrays, the potent passages read almost as advertisements or tweets, echoing our modern modes of communication.
Choose from the following truisms that run through the installation.
- PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT
- IT IS IN YOUR SELF-INTEREST TO FIND A WAY TO BE VERY TENDER
- IDEALS ARE REPLACED BY COVENTIONAL GOALS AT A CERTAIN AGE
- LOVE DEMONSTRATES LARGESS OF SPIRIT
- YOU MUST KNOW WHERE YOU STOP AND THE WORLD BEGINS
In your own words, describe what you think Holzer means to say and evaluate its effectiveness. What changes to its presentation would make it more effective? Less effective?