What is Weightier: Images or Words?

The combination of art and text have been around for a long time. Think illuminated manuscripts and Arab calligraphy. However, in the 1960s, something shifted in the world of art.

Conceptual artists became less interested in building beautiful scrolling and objects of nature around letters and text. Instead, these artists decided to make the letters or text the subject of their art. One of the most well-known artist today making words into an art form is Jenny Holzer (1950-).

Holzer focuses on phrases that provoke thought. She started with street posters and has widened her "canvas" to include all sorts of materials including footstools, stone benches, photographs, t-shirts, LED signs on buildings and even the internet. (If you search the 'net, you will find websites that list her "truisms" such as, "Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise" or "An Elite is Inevitable.")





(You can click on images to read.)

In time, Holzer began to use the text of poets, authors, and even declassified U.S. Army documents. These efforts seem to be the artist's attempt to elicit debate or perhaps even enlighten viewers. In either case, do you think that words can carry as much weight as images?

Briefly Speaking...,

Last Thursday I was driving to the post office and listening to NPR. The host was interviewing the authors of a book on 6-word memoirs.

The authors said that allegedly Hemingway was challenged in a bar (where else?) to come up with a 6-word memoir. He responded, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." That's profound, but then again, he was a writer. Less daunting were funny ones from Stephen Colbert and Dave Barry.

The NPR host invited listeners to phone in their 6-word memoir. It was wonderful. Memoirs were serious, funny or poignant. Since I was driving, the only one I can remember to quote is: "Bachelor party, You-Tube video, Wedding canceled."

Now, since this blog is titled Ruminations on Art and Life, I invite you to make up a 6-word memoir.

The only thing I ask is that you post your memoir with your first name on this website. Let's make it interactive and not use email for your brief "gem."

I've written one to get the ball rolling. Click on comments, read mine/others and add your own.