Big Words, Big Ideas
by Caryn Thurman on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 09:33 am
Conceptual artist Jenny Holzer is set to unveil a new work tonight in Pittsburgh that highlights text from three authors with ties to the city. The display will feature words written by Annie Dillard, John Edgar Wideman and Thomas Bell. According to the New York Times, the installation "uses more than 1,500 light-emitting diode tubes to scroll the texts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in letters 36 inches high and 11 inches wide, along two edges of the roof, each nearly 350 feet long." Holzer's work has taken the written word and transformed it into a larger than life display that works on many different levels -- as art, as literature, as social conscience. You can also check out a Jenny Holzer online project "Please Change Beliefs" (interactive, naturally) here.
3 reponses to "Big Words, Big Ideas"
I like this ideaFrom the Pittsburgh Live story:"Sokolowski said the convention center's art is designed to encourage developers to include more public art in Pittsburgh projects. The goal, he said, is to have 1 percent of development costs set aside for art."If only more communities adopted this approach. We just had a $350 million development project in Peoria. That would have been a nice little chunk of change for the art/literary community.
Reminds me of Yoko"all ism's are daddies" Except Yoko makes more sense, no offense.
I think there are a lot of factors that come together to make these kinds of things happen, but it sure isn't common enough. One of the biggest things, I think, is to have the right people advocating for it. In the case of the Holzer installation, it works on so many levels not just as art, but as public awareness for art, etc., since it's just so eyecatching and huge.