Jenny Holzer - Evening & Day Editions London Wednesday, January 17, 2024 | Phillips

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  • “I used language because I wanted to offer content that people – not necessarily art people – could understand”
    —Jenny Holzer 
    Opening with the remark “I DO NOT HEAR”, Jenny Holzer’s Blue Blue is a soundless installation piece that presents a cyclical text in cobalt LED lights. Presented in motion, much like a stock market ticker, the poetic narrative presents an emotive exploration of unhealthy relationships and their aftermaths. The phrases, which are written from the first person, poignantly convey this widely experienced trauma on a deeply personal level, allowing the personal experience to seep into collective politics and psychology. The lyrical movement of the text in Blue Blue was important to Holzer, and was the impetus for her use of electronic signs, “because motion is much like the spoken word… I write my text by saying the words out loud, or I write and then say words, to test them. Having text move is an extension of that process.”

     

    Trading floor, New York, 1980s. Image: STOCKFOLIO® / Alamy Stock Photo

    Holzer’s use of isolated, capitalised text is a conscious means to ensure the accessibility of her messages. This builds of the foundations of her artistic practise, which involved pasting posters on New York streets in the 1970s – an intentional mode of presentation intended to be viewed by as wide an audience as possible. Her messages span a range of mediums, from marble carving and t-shirts, to posters and light projections. LED signs such as Blue Blue evoke advertising and financial market displays, aligning with forms of mass-messaging. In doing so, Holzer harnesses this medium to showcase her captivating written words which examine the interplay between personal and shared experience.

    “It is her attunement to the subtle balance between the aesthetic demands of form and the intellectual rigour required by the texts that make her work outstanding in the linguistic tradition of contemporary art.”
    —Jörg Schellmann

    • Provenance

      Personal copy of the publisher and part of the Archive of Edition Schellmann since time of publication

    • Literature

      Jörg Schellmann, ed., Forty Are Better Than One, Munich/New York, 2009, pp. 158-159
      ars publicata, Jenny Holzer Editions, 2003.01 [3]

    • Catalogue Essay

      I DO NOT HEAR
      YOUR HAND
      ON THE LATCH.
      I WAKE TO
      YOU IN MY BED
      YOUR BACK AGAINST
      THE WALL.
      YOU ARE
      MY RIB
      HEADBOARD.

      I KNOW YOUR SMELL.
      THERE IS NO
      WORK FOR MY EYES.

      HALF AWARE
      I FEEL
      YOUR HAND MOVE
      AND THE PAIN
      IS YOUR SIGNATURE
      AND THE START.

      WE ARE NO FIT.
      MY MOUTH
      PROVIDES COMFORT
      FOR US
      BUT THE MILK
      IS NO MILK
      THE NIPPLE NO BREAST
      THE BREASTS NOT MINE.
      MY PUZZLE STILL
      I AM AN INFANT
      AND YOU ARE NOT
      MY MOTHER.

      I ASK THE
      RUG ON THE STAIR
      INTRICATE PATTERN
      HOLD THE SOUND.
      THERE IS BLOOD
      AND MORE BLOOD.
      THERE IS SHIT
      IN THE BLOOD.
      THIS IS NOT
      FEEDING TIME.
      I FIND MY SKIN
      A COVER OF SENSE
      THE ORDAINED EDGE
      BUT MY SKIN FAILS.

      I GAPE
      FULL OF YOU
      NOT TAKEN ELSEWHERE.

      YOU LOCK AND
      CONVULSE THEN
      EASE NEAR ME.
      I NEVER QUIET
      I AM AROUSED
      ALL THE TIME NOW.
      I WORK THE PAUSE IN THE NIGHT
      WHEN NO
      WOMEN GO ABOUT
      AND NO
      WOMEN COME
      WHEN CALLED.

      I EXALT IN MY
      SKILL IN THE SHADE
      EYELESS BABY TRICKS
      TONGUE CURLED
      AROUND
      ALL SWEET BREATH
      AND I
      SHOW YOU THIS NOW
      AND KEEP IT
      FOR LATER.

      MY ROOM
      HAS FOUR DOORS
      NOT ALL CLOSED.
      THE ROOM HAS
      THREE WINDOWS
      SHUT AND
      A BLIND CLOSET.
      HERE IS RUSTY WATER
      TO CLEAN ME
      WELL ENOUGH
      TO GIVE BACK
      TO PEOPLE.

      I AM
      WHERE BONES FALL
      AFTER EATING.
      BEFORE YOU DIE
      I SEE YOUR BODY
      ON A BED
      IN THE LIGHT.
      YOUR SHIRT IS OPEN
      A SUITOR’S BOAST
      YOUR CHEST
      ADMITTING DEVOTION.
      I HAD NOT
      EXPECTED
      A CLAIM FROM
      A DYING MAN.

      YOU SURPRISE ME
      DEAD
      BEFORE I AM.

      WHEN YOU COME
      ALONG BY NIGHT
      TO WATCH
      MY OWN GIRL
      I LOVE HER MORE
      AND SEND YOU HOME.

    • Artist Biography

      Jenny Holzer

      American • 1950

      Jenny Holzer is a Conceptual artist best known for her text-based public art projects. Holzer's work speaks of violence, oppression, sexuality, feminism, power, war and death. Throughout the years, Holzer has employed a variety of media, from a T-shirt to a plaque to an LED sign. Starting in the 1970s with the New York City posters, and continuing through her recent light projections on landscape and architecture, she uses her art as a form of communication and commentary. Holzer's art hangs in important collections around the globe including 7 World Trade Center, the Venice Biennale, the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao and the Whitney Museum of American Art. 

      View More Works

Works from the Archive of Edition Schellmann to benefit the Ars Publicata Project

52

Blue Blue

2004
Electronic LED sign with blue diodes and anodized aluminium housing.
41.9 x 4.8 x 1.2 cm (16 1/2 x 1 7/8 x 1/2 in.)
Signed in black felt-tip pen and numbered 4/20 (printed) on the label affixed to the reverse (there were also 5 artist's proofs), published by Edition Schellmann, Munich and New York.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£8,000 - 12,000 

Sold for £10,160

Contact Specialist

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rtooby-desmond@phillips.com

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Senior International Specialist, Editions
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Evening & Day Editions

London Auction 17 - 18 January 2024