US artist Jenny Holzer chosen for Blenheim Palace installations
|
Version 0 of 1. The American artist Jenny Holzer, known for challenging texts imposed on urban settings, has been chosen as the next contemporary artist to tackle one of the most privileged spaces in the UK, the baroque splendour of Blenheim Palace. She has already visited the enormous 18th-century building in Oxfordshire, where she will create installations including some of her trademark text projections, which will transform the palace after dark. She said: “My first visit to Blenheim Palace left me with too many ideas, on the complex past and its relevance to this knife-edge present.” She will be the fourth major contemporary artist, and the first woman, invited to add a new twist to its historic interiors and grounds, after Ai Weiwei, Laurence Weiner and Michelangelo Pistoletto. In Holzer’s breakthrough work, Truisms (1977-79), phrases such as “Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise” were posted anonymously around New York on cheaply printed sheets of paper. The work has lived on in bestselling T-shirts. Michael Frahm, director of the Blenheim Art Foundation, said he had admired Holzer’s work for years. “She is certainly one of the leading artists of her generation, with a career spanning 40 years. Jenny has a strong voice and distinct message and she has developed a beautiful and daring practice which challenges people’s assumption about the world. “The work always engages with the present moment, yet has a proverbial timelessness about it. I am confident that Jenny will rise to the challenge of showing at Blenheim which – let’s face it – is not your typical white cube.” She will create new work for the palace, including text carved into stone, LED light pieces, projections, and installations using dramatic black mondo grass. Frahm expects the uncompromisingly spare and contemporary quality of her work to contrast excitingly with the grandeur of Blenheim. “Jenny’s work has always circled around systems of authority, memory, and conflict. It is fearless and hard-hitting, but also very poetic. I liked the juxtaposition of this with Blenheim, which is both of the past and of the present, and is built on a rich history of politics and power. “To marry the past with the future has always been one of the main aims of Blenheim Art Foundation, and we hope that with this exhibition we will keep surprising visitors and opening minds to new ways in which contemporary art and heritage sites can exist together.” Holzer, who lives and works in New York, has work in international collections and shows – including the American Dream exhibition opening this week at the British Museum. In 1990 she took the Golden Lion prize for the best national contribution to the Venice Biennale. Blenheim Palace was originally conceived as a gift from the grateful nation to the Duke of Marlborough for victory in battle, though it ended up costing far more than the grateful nation was prepared to spend. It is now a world heritage site. Holzer’s work will be on display from 28 September until 31 December. |