Jenny Holzer

Truisms

  • Abuse of power comes as no surprise.
  • It's not good to live on credit.
  • Put food out in the same place every day talk to the people who come to eat and organize them.
  • Murder has its sexual side.
  • The family is living on borrowed time.
  • People who go crazy are too sensitive.
  • At times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning.
  • Midwesterners are impatient with things that are either too elaborate or too silly.

    •

    Living

  • It takes a while before you can step over inert bodies and go ahead with what you were wanting to do.
  • What a shock when they tell you that it won't hurt and you almost turn inside out when they begin.

    •

    Times Square

  • Torture is barbaric.
  • Fathers often use too much force.
  • Money creates taste.

    •

    Survival

  • What urge will save us now that sex won't?
  • Savor kindness because cruelty is always possible later.
  • Laugh hard at the absurdly evil.

    •

    Inflammatory Essay (1979-81)

  • Don't talk down to me. Don't be polite to me. Don't try to make me feel nice. Don't relax.
  • I'll cut the smile off your face. You think I don't know what's going on. You think I'm afraid to react. The joke's on you. I'm biding my time, looking for the spot. You think no one can reach you, no one can have you have. I've been planning while you're playing. I've been saving while you're spending. The game is almost over so it's time you acknowledge me. Do you want to fall not ever knowing who took you?

    • Art news, summer 1988, "Jenny Holzer: the message is the medium," by John Howell, 122-127

    Tips for Performers

  • Playing cards have the top half upside-down to help cheaters.
  • There are a finite number of jokes in the universe.
  • Singing is a trick to get people to listen to music for longer than they would ordinarily.
  • There is no music in space.
  • People will pay to watch people make sounds.
  • Everything on stage should be larger than in real life.

    •

    Life on Earth

  • Men like pastries, women like custards.
  • Scientists have invented a love drug, but it only works on bugs.
  • Animals like earthquakes, tornadoes and volcanic activity.
  • Nuclear weapons can wipe out life on Earth, if used properly.
  • Cats like houses better than people.
  • Dolphins find people amusing, but they don't want to talk to them.
  • People look ridiculous when they're in ecstasy.
  • Schools are for training people how to listen to other people.
  • Body odor is the window to the soul.
  • Sound is worth money.

    • Living with Other People

  • Violence on television only affects children whose parents act like television personalities.
  • Table manners are for people who have nothing better to do.
  • Civilization is religion.
  • Civilized people walk funny.
  • There is always a party going on somewhere.
  • People will remember you better if you always wear the same outfit.
    • Truismos, spanish translation, colored photostats, South Bronx (New York 1979)
  • a menudo los padres usan mucha fuerza
  • algunas cicatices jamas se sanan
  • amenazar a alquien sexualmente es un acto horrible
  • criese a los ninos y ninas de la misma forma
  • deberia viajar livianamente
  • el aburrimiento hace que uno haga cosas locas
  • el abuso del poder no debe de ser sorpresa alguna
  • al amor romantico se inventa para manipular a las mujeres
  • el animalismo es perfectamente saludable
  • el comer demasiado es criminal
  • el crimen contra la propiedad es relativamente poco importante
  • el dinero crea gusto
  • el dolor puede ser una cosa positiva
  • el expresar coraje es necesario
  • el gobierno es una carga para la gente
  • el hambre es la forma de la naturaleza
  • el homicidio tiene su lado sexual
  • el humor es un escape
  • el ignorar los enemigos es la mejor forma de pelear
  • el intercambio de una vida por otra es suficietemente justo
  • el matar es inevitable pero no es algo de que estar orgulloso
  • el molestar a las personas sexualmente puede dar a consecuencias muy feas
  • el morirse deberia ser tan facil como caerse de un pale
  • el unirse conyuges protuitamente es bueno para lo falso de mos mitos sexuales
  • el usar la fuerza para parar la fuerza el absurdo
  • en algunas instantes es mejor morir que continuar
  • en el afan no hay nada que redimir
  • en tiempos la inactividad es preferible al funcinamiento sin cuidado
  • es bueno dar dinero extra a la caridad
  • es heroico el tratar de parar el tiempo
  • es imperante tener una vida de fantasia activa
  • es imposible reconciliar el corazon y el cerebro
  • es mejor ser ingenuo que ser vivido
  • es mero accidente el que sus padres sean sus padres
  • escuche cuando su cuerpo habla
  • hay que tener una gran pasion
  • hay una division muy delicada entre la informacion y la propaganda

    • Lucy R. Lippard, Get the message? a decade of art for social change (NY 1984)

    typed and tended by tom kunesh
    tpkunesh@chattanooga.net