Seeing Jenny Holzer on here was a pleasant surprise!
ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE
Her more recent work Projections doesn't involve much of her own writing but it's interesting nonetheless (both the texts and the medium). She talks about it a bit in this video [2].
And I quite like her Redaction Paintings that were made from redacted military files [3].
[1] https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/holzer-inflammatory-ess...
DFW in IJ: "The clichéd directives are a lot more deep and hard to actually do. To try and live by instead of just say... So then at forty-six years or age I came here to live by clichés... One day at a time. Easy does it. First things first. Courage is fear that has said its prayers. Ask for help. Thy will not mine be done. It works if you work it. Grow or go. Keep coming back."
This doesn’t include a lot of post-1983 Truisms which are just as good. My favorite might be “Someone Wants To Cut A Hole In You And Fuck You Through It, Buddy”
I love how there’s contradictions, like how for “All good things come to those who wait” meets “Early bird catches the worm”.
CALM IS MORE CONDUCTIVE TO CREATIVITY THAN IS ANXIETY
Conductive or conducive?
I used to eat at her green table sometimes when I worked in the cafeteria right next door https://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu/artist/holzer.html
Some good couplets...
As corollaries for the hardest problem in computer science:
> A NAME MEANS A LOT JUST BY ITSELF
> SYMBOLS ARE MORE MEANINGFUL THAN THINGS THEMSELVES
As advice to myself because I love refactoring:
> ABSTRACTION IS A TYPE OF DECADENCE
> DECADENCE CAN BE AN END IN ITSELF
Noting the date and utexas.edu, I was expecting something from the EWD archive. After some mild disappointment, this did seem to actually feed my underlying desire for some curmudgeonly wisdom.
"ANY SURPLUS IS IMMORAL" "AUTOMATION IS DEADLY"
... wait, what?
> YOU HAVE TO HURT OTHERS TO BE EXTRAORDINARY
I wonder what he meant by that.
What is the context/background of this artwork?
convertcase.net to the rescue.
Truism is a truism is a truism.
I dare you to top this.
"The new disease came."
DON'T TRUST EVERYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET.
-- Abraham Lincoln
> truism: a statement that is obviously true and says nothing new or interesting.
Just scanning through these I wouldn't label all of them "truisms." For example,
> ANY SURPLUS IS IMMORAL
and
> AUTOMATION IS DEADLY
I wouldn't consider either of these "obviously true."
I keep randomly returning to these, some great stuff in there. I also this quote of Jenny Holzer from another artwork:
> There is a period when it is clear that you have gone wrong but you continue. Sometimes there is a luxurious amount of time before anything bad happens.