LED Bible
by Erin Gifford
Sitting in the
Museum of Fine Arts’ café, eating an overpriced, poorly made, waxy brownie, you
wouldn’t expect to be visually assaulted with a thought provoking LED
sign. In such a public setting, one
would not expect their morals and existences to be questioned, yet Jenny
Holzer’s “Selections from Truisms, Inflammatory Essays, The Living Series, The
Survival Series, Under a Rock, Laments, and Child Text” does just that. In
flashing neon green, red, and yellow, the sign brings one-line statements by
the artist to life.
A very atypical
piece, the sign hurts your eyes the first time you look at it due to its
extreme brightness and text that flies by on the sign. All of the statements go
by at a speed that fits what they say, depending on how much the author wants
you to think about that particular phrase. Things such as “…the body is
fragile”, “revolution is a childish concept”, “you were full of joy”, “she was
a mistake”, and many other interesting sayings as the sign plays for 60 minutes
then loops again.
Jenny Holzer
conjured this collection of one-liners over a period of around 13 years,
starting off by hand-printing sayings onto posters and then proceeding to paste
them up on the streets. She later proceeded to make signs, t-shirts, and
stickers. The MFA commissioned Holzer to create this LED sign for the museum in
1990, compiling many of her projects into one flashing masterpiece. This is a
striking visual for any individual, leaving you questioning everything you have
and haven’t ever really thought about.
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