'Truisms', Jenny Holzer

Artwork details

Artist

Jenny Holzer (born 1950)

Title

Truisms

Date 1984

MediumMetal, light emitting diode units and plastic

Dimensionsobject: 169 x 1539 x 162 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Presented by the Patrons of New Art through the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1985

Reference

T03959

Not on display

Display caption

Like other artists of her generation, Holzer turned to the strategies of the mass media and advertising in her work. In the late 1970s, she devised nearly 300 aphorisms or slogans, which play on commonly held truths and clichés. Initially, the Truisms were infiltrated into the public arena via stickers, T-shirts and posters. Later, Holzer started using electronic displays. In 1982 she blazed these messages across a giant advertising hoarding in Times Square, New York. The Truisms are deliberately challenging, presenting a spectrum of often-contradictory opinions. Holzer hoped they would sharpen people's awareness of the 'usual baloney they are fed' in daily life.

October 2000