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The first Australian survey of works by celebrated New York artist Jenny Holzer – famous for her ongoing text series Truisms – will open at ACCA in December.
The Truisms are metaphors, aphorisms and Holzer’s own musings about the state of the world, which blend like advertisements into the urban environment – projected onto high-profile public buildings, LED screens, on street posters or stickers placed randomly on parking metres, telephone booths and public furniture.
Some are political, others extremely funny. The words ‘Men Don’t Protect You Anymore’ were reproduced on condoms and street billboards, while ‘Protect Me From What I Want’ featured across a BMW and quotes by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Theodore Roosevelt about the role of art and culture in American society projected from the Kennedy Centre in Washington.
While Holzer has used words and ideas in public spaces for the past thirty years, she has also created large-scale projects for prominent institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum (New York), the Institute of Contemporary Art (London) and the Centre Pompidou (Paris).
In 1990 she was the first woman artist to represent America with a solo exhibition at the Venice Biennale and her installation won the prestigious Leone d’Oro award.
Most recently she has brought her projections inside, moving words along walls and floors like movie credits and for this exhibition, Holzer will create a new, constantly moving projection of poetry for ACCA’s main exhibition hall.
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