Featured Activist Artist: Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer was born in the 1950’s and her work, though diverse, almost always incorporates text and almost always utilizes the public space. I appreciate the simplicity of the pieces and the impact that the work has because of it. There are no expressive brush strokes here, no artist’s hand at all in fact, but Holzer is either uninterested in that kind of expression or at least selflessly withholds herself from it. By the way she chooses to work, by stripping the work down to its bare essentials, she is able to (in my opinion) successfully push the pieces to their full potential and maximize effectiveness (projecting text on the facades of buildings, putting up billboards, drawing interest with neon and light or making us want to know what the actual text is on those blotched out government documents). I think that regardless of whatever messages that Holzer conveys in her work, the way that she chooses to go about making and presenting the work just by itself is the most interesting and possibly the most useful thing that I’ve gathered for myself from looking at her stuff.






Suggestions for future artist features?
I hope everyone’s summer is going well. I just got back into town from spending the month with my family I was excited to see that we have several new members! Welcome, and if you have a specific cause that you are knowledgeable about or that you feel passionately about (and which relates to non-violence) don’t forget that you can message me with info about it (links, videos, concise description) and I’d like to post that up on the page of the group.