Jenny Holzer: Twice Told
Digitized Civil War journal entries illuminated in a bedroom setting.
April 30 - September 26, 2005
The Decorative Arts Center of Ohio proudly presents twice told, an original installation by Lancaster native and award-winning artist Jenny Holzer. twice told takes you on a journey through the writings of mid-nineteenth century residents of Lancaster. The Reese-Peters galleries display journal excerpts detailing the lives of these citizens. Journal entries and letters chosen by Holzer are programmed on electronic signs, which illuminate the galleries. The artist also uses period beds and other decorative art objects to echo and amplify the respective texts.
“I am using words that are composed and read in private, so I need to have objects nearby that are intimate, or in the Civil War soldier’s room, spare and somber,” says Holzer. “What surrounds us shapes us. I focused on beds – where the next letters or diary entries are written, and where the last ones are read and re-read. Objects are silent, they keep secrets, but they hint,” says Holzer.
For more than twenty-five years, Holzer has presented her thought-provoking ideas, arguments, joys, and sorrows through writing. Her texts have appeared on plaques, marble benches, t-shirts, and electronic signs in venues and public places including the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, The Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Venice Biennale, New York City’s Times Square, and now the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio.
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