Jenny Holzer is about to invade your Instagram with posters
The artist behind the most political slogans of the seventies and eighties, Jenny Holzer, is set to take over Instagram feeds with her new poster show at Alden Projects gallery, in New York.
Posters projected our deepest fears and desires
The conceptual artist, well known for her posters projecting the deepest desires and fears, began her career as an art student in the late ’70s. Only in her twenties, Holzer came up with a poster series entitled “Truisms”, which combined a variety of aphorisms in one single sheet. The pages were plastered all over Times Square and referred to as “Jenny Holzer’s Readers Digest Version to Western and Eastern Thought.”
Mao and Lenin featured in early work
Just a year later, the follow up campaign “Inflammatory Essays” featured brightly colored posters based around the writings of famous communists like Mao and Lenin. Anarchists, Valerie Solanas and Emma Goldman, were also included in the series designed to provoke the audience. The phrases ranged from far-right thoughts to extreme leftist leanings, and in today’s world would seem ominously prescient. Such slogans as “Fear is the most elegant weapon” and “Conflict of interest must be seen for what it is” are strikingly familiar in the modern age.
Largest collection of Holzer’s work featured in one place
A huge fan of Holzer’s work, Todd Alden, director of the Alden Projects gallery, has been gathering the posters since he first came to New York in the ’80s. He loves the idea of their inexpensive distribution and basic conceptual artwork, bordering on street art. “The first time I found the essays, they were in a plastic ziplock bag in Printed Matter and I thought they were the most extraordinary things,” he explained. Ever since, he has spent time seeking out the posters, and now has a massive collection of over 100 sheets.
Choosing politics or Nazis for the show?
After the recent US elections, Alden started to think about how he could produce a show that would address the thinking of the incoming Trump administration. Torn between two artists — the second being John Heartfield, the German artist whose art was about the Nazis — his decision was made for him after seeing Holzer’s poster on his wall. Since she had first come about just after the Reagan elections, it seemed fitting that her work should be used to depict another controversial election.
Political themes make posters very apt
The show, “Rejoice! Our Times Are Intolerable: Jenny Holzer’s Street Posters, 1977–1982”, is the first of its kind, dedicated to Holzer’s earlier works on sheets of white paper. It is expected to be a huge hit on Instagram for its eye-catching colors and timely political themes. “These posters were originally made to occupy public spaces,” Alden added. “I’m hoping that people will see this as a model for political activism, and as a model for speaking out, both about our media culture today and our political situation.”
h/t: Vogue
