Jenny Holzer: Programming | Art21 "Exclusive"

Episode #048: Jenny Holzer discusses the programming of her LED sculptures during the installation of the exhibition "PROTECT PROTECT" at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Featured works include "MONUMENT" (2008), "Thorax" (2008), "Purple" (2008), "Blue Cross" (2008), "Green Purple Cross" (2008), and "Hand" (2008), among others. The exhibition remains on view in Chicago through February 1st, and will travel to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York in March.

Jenny Holzer is featured in the Season 4 (2007) episode Protest of the Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century television series on PBS.

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Learn more about Jenny Holzer: http://www.art21.org/artists/jenny-holzer

VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller, Nick Ravich & Kelly Shindler. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera & Sound: George Monteleone & Alexander Stewart. Editor: Jenny Chiurco. Artwork Courtesy: Jenny Holzer. Special Thanks: MCA Chicago & Karla Loring.

The big installations not only include
the creation of or the choice of the text,

but then have much to do
with the filling of the space,

and then have to do with the programming
often of the electronics,

and that programming includes pauses,
flashes, phrasing, and more.

I really like the programming aspect.

I was a typesetter and typesetting
is not unlike programming;

you have to make it correct,
complete, pretty, and fitted.

The presentation needs
to make sense with the content

and then needs to engage people.

I don’t know how to program

so I'm, as often is the case,

reliant upon others.

We will have our ideas about
what’s going to happen,

and then we go and see
if our ideas were right.

If it’s boring, if it seems wrong
for the content,

if it doesn’t fill the space;

there are many ways to have it wrong.

And often you can't tell
until you're there.

I hope the installations are atmospheric.

I want color to suffuse the space
and pulse and do all kinds of tricks.