Jenny Holzer‘s Protect Protect exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art is guarded with hawk-like security– it took sneaky iPhone work to take this quick detail shot of her 2008 piece Purple. The bright, happy colors are in sharp contrast to the seriousness of the scrolling text; much of the language in the exhibit is lifted from declassified U.S. government documents from the Iraq war, including internal memos, interrogation transcripts and even coroner reports of captives dying during beatings. Needless to say, heavy stuff for a beautiful weekend here in NYC. Oh yeah, and look up “lustmord.”
Note to artist: my friend Mikey and I suggest a slip ‘n slide be installed underneath this work.
Super glad I was able to see this before it closed. For those who missed it, here’s the New York Times review accompanied by a slide-show containing non-degenerate (read: my) photography.
The Amateur Art Collector 