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Lot Essay
"'Laments' came during the Aids epidemic. I had been writing about unnecessary death of any sort, for example, from bad government or accident. The 'Laments' were shown at the DIA Art Foundation on thirteen stone sarcophagi and in thirteen vertical synchronized LED signs." (J. Holzer, in: D. Joselit, J. Simon and R. Salecl (eds.), 'Jenny Holzer', London 1998, p. 28.)
The present installation is one of the thirteen works exhibited at the DIA Foundation. This series of works, together with the 'Truisms' from 1977-79, is perhaps one of the artist's seminal works. Here, one can really see and read Holzer's "passionate and politicised speech into traditions of conceptual and installation art of the late 1960s and 1970s characterised by detachment and neutrality." (D. Joselit, 'Voices, Bodies and Spaces: The Art of Jenny Holzer', in ibid., p. 42.)
Holzer provocatively places the traditional monumental form of the sarcophagus side by side with contemporary urban LED signs. As David Joselit points out: "Holzer's progression to stone was an effort to address the monument's traditional promise of permanency." (in ibid., p. 65) In 'Laments', however, the use of the sarcophagus is also a clear reference to death caused by AIDS. In this work, the text refers to the female sexual organ and, at the same time, also to death - the connection between sexuality and mortality underscoring the indirect reference to AIDS.
The present installation is one of the thirteen works exhibited at the DIA Foundation. This series of works, together with the 'Truisms' from 1977-79, is perhaps one of the artist's seminal works. Here, one can really see and read Holzer's "passionate and politicised speech into traditions of conceptual and installation art of the late 1960s and 1970s characterised by detachment and neutrality." (D. Joselit, 'Voices, Bodies and Spaces: The Art of Jenny Holzer', in ibid., p. 42.)
Holzer provocatively places the traditional monumental form of the sarcophagus side by side with contemporary urban LED signs. As David Joselit points out: "Holzer's progression to stone was an effort to address the monument's traditional promise of permanency." (in ibid., p. 65) In 'Laments', however, the use of the sarcophagus is also a clear reference to death caused by AIDS. In this work, the text refers to the female sexual organ and, at the same time, also to death - the connection between sexuality and mortality underscoring the indirect reference to AIDS.