Jenny Holzer: Redaction Paintings [Hardcover]

Robert Storr (Author), Jenny Holzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2007

This elegant clothbound monograph gathers the most recent work by the seminal language-based installation artist, Jenny Holzer. Presented to great acclaim at New York's Cheim & Read gallery this past summer, the work consists of enlarged, colorized silkscreen "paintings" of declassified and oftentimes heavily censored American military and intelligence documents that have recently been made available to the public through the Freedom of Information Act. Beautiful in their own right, the works are also haunting reminders of what really goes on behind the scenes in the American military/political power system. Documents address counter-terrorism, prisoner abuse, and even the threat of Osama Bin Laden. Some of the documents are almost completely inked out, like Colin Powell's memo on Defense Intelligence Agency reorganization. Others are spotty enough to allow readers to try to fill in the blanks. As Roberta Smith wrote in the New York Times, these are "the hardest-hitting, least hypothetical texts of Holzer's career."

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Cheim & Read (February 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0975331787
• ISBN-13: 978-0975331781
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,901,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Gut-wrenching, necessary, inspirational..., February 21, 2008

By 

Kathlene Kelly "hermit girl" (planet earth) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jenny Holzer: Redaction Paintings (Hardcover)

It would be unfortunately difficult to identify the last time I was confronted with artwork so powerful that I found myself stopping mid-sentence to examine it. Where Barbara Kruger's work is moving, Jenny Holzer is compelling to the point of aggressiveness. The work Holzer's presents in Redaction Paintings is intense to the point of brutality - unflinching, unapologetic and unmistakably relevant on a global level.

Holzer's display of declassified government documents is an example of real horror in a culture where television and movie theaters play at attempts to frighten the masses out of their apathy. It would be easy to gloss over the work the artist has presented here - easy, because to linger over artwork that involves words is slightly counter-intuitive to the average art consumer. We go to galleries not to read but to look at 'the pretty pictures'. When faced with a completely textual display - especially one revealing several notable underbellies - it is too easy to tighten down the blinders and move on. In his introduction (Paper Trail), Robert Storr puts an uncomfortable finger on one of the many truths that surface when work like Holzer's appears in a societally and ethically naïve (at best) line of sight:

What place does such information have in the lives of the average citizen...Insofar as the excesses of our government are concerned, the specific answer varies from person to person, according to their customary news sources, their memory and ability to piece together the big picture from seemingly random items doled out to them by mass media. Equally important are their basic tolerance for unpleasant reality and their capacity for denial. Finally, there is the relative impact of fatigue and disillusionment. (8)

Storr's statement is bare and fitting given the subject matter. The documents Holzer uses are not touched up or manufactured for personal objective. They are memoranda, correspondence printed on letterhead, and handwritten documents of interrogation and torture. Included are:

* A document signed by George H.W. Bush declaring that U.S. interests in Persian Gulf oil should be safeguarded no matter the methods or circumstances for as long as he determined such action was necessary.
* A document proving U.S. government knowledge of the presence of pro-violence extremists enrolled in aviation courses and schools in the U.S. prior to the September 11, 2001 bombings in New York City and Washington D.C. One such record noted that the subject had been interviewed repeatedly by government officials, revealing details about plans for a wide-scale attack in the U.S. and separately in Great Britain.
* A document signed by George W. Bush stating that the application of the Geneva Convention prisoner treatment protocols do not apply to members of al-Qa'ida or the Taliban because the government does not define them as prisoners of war.
* Proof of the existence of interrogation "wish lists" detailing techniques military supervisors want the authority to approve for use by interrogation personnel, including but not limited to: sleep and stimulus deprivation, striking prisoners with open hands and fists, striking prisoners with phone books, muscle fatigue inducements and low voltage electrocution. Some of these techniques have been approved. In some cases the matter of "approval' is obviously not a concern.

There are also accounts, by military and civilian personnel, of the abuse and outright harm of prisoners and a nauseating number of autopsy and death certificates that determine detainee cause of death as "Homicide".

Holzer gives her audience a gut-wrenching serving of reality; not the scantily clad, bitchy variety portrayed on "reality television" but the naked vengeance strain that leaves no method unexplored and no innocent bystanders in its wake. In a world where I once imagined that "reality" wanted its reputation back, Holzer leaves me thinking that reality more likely wants nothing to do with itself at this point, preferring instead to close its eyes against the glaring light of fact. In a world where television has stripped reality of its ability to surprise a response or incite action, Holzer is a force determined to remain undiluted. Her work screams at us to wake up and smell the blood bath. One hopes that others, seeing her work, will be motivated to take up the cry.