Jenny Holzer's flashback to Porto and her powerful use of words

Holzer’s work with street art

The image was then given to Porto-based graffiti artist Kilo to recreate in spray paint for Wrong Answers. This collaboration also manifested as an immersive space covered in graffiti in the mezzanine alcove of the Serralves Library. Together, they refer to how Holzer has continuously collaborated with street artists throughout her career.

In her address to the Trump administration, her work comes across as more literally visual, using the face to combat a face. It’s almost as if he’s conceding the fact that this particular power can’t be put on the table with words alone. The table should be shiny, golden and filled with his image as papal memorabilia.

Installation views by Jenny Holzer: Incorrect answers

Laments (1989) and working with stone

While paper has an ephemeral, almost disposable quality, Holzer has also turned to more permanent media for her written works. For many decades, it has capitalized on the form of the stone bench, marking a resting place while at the same time conveying a kind of ancient monumentality in the way it bears inscriptions. This is particularly evident in her work Laments (1989), featured in the show, which was created at the height of the AIDS epidemic. While iterations of the benches appear around the exhibition in their original state—flat planes to sit on—they also appear in a new form.

Installation views by Jenny Holzer: Incorrect answers

bright, rotating LEDs

To create the flashy LED path that flows through the corridor and winds around the exhibition space, Holzer took a sledgehammer to some of her stonework. Raised from the rubble, these pieces frame a trickle of garish black and orange signs that roll down the corridor like stones at the edge of a stream. They lead to a pile of almost innumerable signs strewn haphazardly on the floor containing an overwhelming, overstimulating array of colors, words and wires.

Installation views by Jenny Holzer: Incorrect answers

In this site-specific retrospective, Wrong Answers collects the works, media and techniques that have defined the American artist. There are rotating LED projects, poetic slogans and messages carved into stone. Her work constantly adapts, both in media and message, to the era she lived in, while also revealing Holzer’s own story.

1/7