On September 1, Jenny Holzer opened a new exhibition called “READY FOR YOU WHEN YOU ARE” at the Hauser & Wirth gallery in West Hollywood, marking her first time back in LA since 2012. The show runs until October 21.
Holzer is renowned as a neo-conceptualist artist who has been mainly working with text since the 1970s. In her newest show, artificial intelligence creates the text.
“Her work has always evolved and … embraced new technology,” says Lindsay Preston Zappas, founder and editor-in-chief of Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles. “It seems to make sense that she would be interested in AI – not only as a new technology to explore, but also as a means of language creation, because that's really what her work has involved since the beginning.”
The centerpieces of Holzer’s exhibition are three LED columns of flashing text that spin, rock, or swing at different speeds. One of them, titled “GOOD,” is a vertical column that displays phrases generated after Holzer prompts it to “describe rapturous human and non-human experiences,” says Zappas.
She adds, “What we see is text that feels poetic. And it's really like saccharin at times, kind of over the top … such as ‘Thickets loom in wild abandon testament to organized chaos.’”
On the other hand, the piece “BAD” displays text generated primarily from extreme political messaging, resulting in phrases like “Stir the masses,” “Rise and revolt,” or “Our demands must be heard.”
Holzer’s piece, “BAD,” shakes and wobbles dangerously close to another one of the artist’s paintings on the wall, while displaying extreme political messaging. Photo by Collin LaFleche. Courtesy of Jenny Holzer and Hauser & Wirth Gallery.
Continuing the theme of political message, Holzer’s piece “WTF” is another LED column that flashes former President Donald Trump’s tweets and QAnon posts. Unlike the other columns, it erratically swings from the ceiling at random speeds. As it moves, it illuminates ancient Roman-style “curse tablets” on the floor that display more of Trump’s tweets.
“Traditionally … curse tablets were used in ancient Greco-Roman times, to call harm onto your foes … so she's drawing a direct parallel with these words, and again, this idea of casting harm and any harm that potentially Trump … was intending there,” Zappas says.
Though the use of AI can be controversial in the art world, Zappas says that, at the end of the day, Holzer is using AI-generated texts to emphasize her recurring theme of the power of language.
“For me, I was really struck again with this power of language – the power that language has to create meaning, potentially start uprisings, but then also, allow us to ponder the beauty around us,” Zappas says. “To have all this language that often bombards us … at this kind of unhealthy speed … but then have that really slow down and picked apart, feels really profound.”