Resources for BEING THERE Art Assignment # 1 Please watch and read the selected videos and articles about the artists Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer. These resources will provide you with context about their work before you begin answering the next set of questions. Sampling and Appropriation Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dIQW4DRrp8 Barbara Kruger: In Her Own Words Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xi9qQb2SHU SUPREME and Barbara Kruger Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9NZSt-r6BI Barbara Kruger Article https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/barbara-kruger/ Jenny Holzer Article https://www.thecut.com/2018/10/women-and-power-jenny- holzer.html Jenny Holzer ART 21 Video https://art21.org/artist/jenny-holzer/ Jenny Holzer Nowness Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKIQNbuIqpE Please consider these questions before engaging with the forthcoming worksheet on Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer. 1. How does Barbara Kruger’s use of advertising styles critique the motivations of contemporary consumer culture? 2. If advertising asks questions to compel us to consume more products, what might Kruger’s work compel us to think about? 3. What is the definition of a “truism”? 4. Jenny Holzer once said, “I used language because I wanted to offer content that people—not necessarily art people—could understand.” Many of Jenny Holzer’s public works use language resembling the style of commercial signs on the street and on the internet. How does Holzer’s style compare and contrast to Kruger’s? 5. Have you ever borrowed text from another piece of writing, such as a song, a poem, or a reference book, to place in a work of art? If so, how did you incorporate it? 6. Does “conceptual art” value the idea (concept) more or less than the finished art object? Barbara Kruger is an American Conceptual artist known for her combination of type and image that conveys a direct feminist cultural critique. Her works examine stereotypes and the behaviors of consumerism with text layered over mass-media images. Rendered with black-and-white, red accented, Futura Bold Oblique font, inspired by the Constructivist Alexander Rodchenko, her works offer up short phrases such as “Thinking of You,” “You are a captive audience,” and “I shop therefore I am.” Like multimedia artist Jenny Holzer, Kruger uses language to broadcast her ideas in a myriad of ways, including prints, T-shirts, posters, photographs, electronic signs, and billboards. “I'm fascinated with the difference between supposedly private and supposedly public and I try to engage the issue of what it means to live in a society that's seemingly shock-proof, yet still is compelled to exercise secrecy,” she explained of her work. Born on January 26, 1945 in Newark, NJ, Kruger worked as a graphic designer and art director after studying at both Syracuse University and Parsons School of Design (where she studied under Diane Arbus and Marvin Israel) in the 1960s. Her early career path directly influenced the style her art would eventually take. She currently lives and works between New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA. Jenny Holzer is an American Conceptual artist best known for her text-based public art projects. Exploring how language is used both as a form of communication and as a means of concealment and control, Holzer has employed a variety of media throughout her career, including large-scale projections, LED displays, T-shirts, and posters. “I used language because I wanted to offer content that people—not necessarily art people—could understand,” she explained. Born on July 29, 1950 in Gallipolis, OH, Holzer received her BFA from Ohio University in 1972 and her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1975. Her popular series Truisms began in 1977, when she started pasting ambiguous quotes such as “ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE” and “PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT” throughout New York, while enrolled in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. In 2012, the Modern commissioned Kind of Blue, a site-specific work to commemorate the Museum’s tenth anniversary in the Tadao Ando building. On nine LED strips installed on the floor of the central pavilion, lines of scrolling blue text flow across the gallery, transmitting Holzer’s sometimes confounding, sometimes disconcerting messages. The work’s twelve-hour text loop serves as a “retrospective” of more than three decades of her art by featuring many of her best known aphorisms, such as YOUR OLDEST FEARS ARE THE WORST ONES, SLIPPING INTO MADNESS IS GOOD FOR THE SAKE OF COMPARISON, MOTHERS SHOULDN’T MAKE TOO MANY SACRIFICES, and LACK OF CHRISMA CAN BE FATAL. The text scrolls through the strips in different patterns and directions and alternates between English and Spanish for the duration of its program. Despite the designation “Truisms”, the truth of Holzer’s phrases are relative, prompting individual viewers to question their own assumptions Jenny Holzer Kind of Blue, 2012 along with the power structures underlying public modes of communication. 9 LED signs with blue diodes Critique with Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger American, born 1945 Untitled (I shop therefore I am), 1987 Photographic silkscreen on vinyl What type of visual language is Barbara Kruger using in this work? How did she make this work? What do you think the artist is trying to represent with this work? How does the choice of technique and style reinforce her concept of critique? Synthesizing Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer Take a moment to read selections from Jenny Holzer’s Truisms. SOLITUDE IS ENRICHING MONEY CREATES TASTE PAIN CAN BE A VERY POSITIVE THING REMEMBER YOU ALWAYS HAVE THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE THE CRUELEST DISAPPOINTMENT IS WHEN YOU LET YOURSELF DOWN BOREDOM MAKES YOU DO CRAZY THINGS A SINCERE EFFORT IS ALL YOU CAN ASK HIDING YOUR MOTIVES IS DESPICABLE AT TIMES YOUR UNCONSCIOUS IS TRUER THAN YOUR CONSCIOUS MIND BEING HAPPY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING ELSE EVERY ACHIEVEMENT REQUIRES A SACRIFICE AWFUL PUNISHMENT AWAITS REALLY BAD PEOPLE CATEGORIZING FEAR IS CALMING Circle the texts that feel the most relevant to you. Strike through the texts that feel the most irrelevant to you. Content and Context For this exercise, you will be assigning text from Jenny Holzer’s Truisms to the provided images. Think about how the marriage of content and context can create meaning. Please cut out any text from the following two pages and then place it onto the provided image templates. Boredom makes you Do crazy things Awful punishment awaits really bad people Categorizing fear is calming . ..... .' .: ·:•:•:- . .- .-:::f\··t:::::\:\ f ,: '.{ : '.; :,fl}\ ' ·· .-. :'· ::_.... _. ' . -':/:::, ·... j I':: · -'.··..·-···--\····I ··t·... \\'....-\:;\i¥t ·-·, '• ... ,''• .. .<: ':-:•:•:.-_:..·•,/::•.:. .. ··•-,::• ::'·:-:. Jenny Holzer Truisms Browse through JENNY HOLZER’S FINAL TEXT SELECTIONS FOR THE MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH (included near the end of this packet). Select five of Jenny Holzer’s Truisms and write them down on a sheet of paper or digital document. Now remix the texts to create four new truisms of your own. For Example, IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVIVE AND YOU WERE FULL OF JOY IT’S BETTER TO BE A GOOD PERSON THAN A FAMOUS PERSON BOREDOM MAKES YOU DO CRAZY THINGS could be remixed into BOREDOM IN A DREAM MAKES YOU SURVIVE Using the following image templates of blank public billboards and advertisement posts, incorporate your new truisms into the empty spaces. Feel free to write or collage by hand, or digitally. JENNY HOLZER STUDIO, LLC ARTIST’S FINAL TEXT SELECTIONS FOR THE MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH 5556 TABLE OF CONTENTS ENGLISH Truisms (1977-79) ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Inflammatory Essays (Selections) (1979-82) .............................................................................................. 10 Living (Selections) (1980-82) ................................................................................................................... 13 Survival (Selections) (1983-85) ................................................................................................................ 18 Under a Rock (Selections) (1986) ............................................................................................................ 20 Laments (Selections) (1989) .................................................................................................................... 21 Mother and Child (1990) ........................................................................................................................ 23 Erlauf (1995) .......................................................................................................................................... 24 Arno (1996) ............................................................................................................................................ 26 SPANISH Truisms (1977-79) ................................................................................................................................... 28 Inflammatory Essays (Selections) (1979-82) .............................................................................................. 38 Living (Selections) (1980-82) ................................................................................................................... 44 Survival (Selections) (1983-85) ................................................................................................................ 49 Under