So much of art-making is about reducing things to the essentials, so I don’t feel particularly crippled by this. I don’t want it to look natural because then I would be making a documentary film. – Jenny Holzer
The desperate things seem to require attention, the lovely things seem to elicit celebration. If I had to choose, I would go to the awful in the hope that doing something could yield a happier result. – Jenny Holzer
That’s the test of street art – to see if anybody stopped. People would cross out ones they didn’t like and would star others. I liked that people would engage with them. – Jenny Holzer
I used language because I wanted to offer content that people – not necessarily art people – could understand. – Jenny Holzer
I wanted to support things that are helpful to people and maybe bash what I think is dangerous. So I switched from being everybody to being myself. – Jenny Holzer
I really like doing the laundry, because I succeed at it. But I loathe putting it away. It is already clean. – Jenny Holzer
I’d paint long strips of canvas and abandon them on the beach, or put bread out in geometric patterns for the pigeons downtown. I wanted people to find something nice and intriguing to puzzle over. Then I’d go back to see if the things were still there, or if anyone would notice. – Jenny Holzer
I’d been doing projects outdoors for the public. I made pigeons eat geometry by putting bread out in rhomboids and triangles. I don’t know if this activity made sense, but the work was available. – Jenny Holzer
I’m always trying to bring unusual content to a different audience – a non-art-world audience. – Jenny Holzer
I get up about four times a night and go back to sleep, or not. Then I swill tea around 8 a.m. I answer e-mail, while I stall thinking about whatever scares me. – Jenny Holzer
I think of a piece, and then people who are competent fabricate it. But lately I’ve started finger painting, which probably should be a joke but isn’t! – Jenny Holzer
One thing that changed when I moved upstate was that I became interested in different materials. I started making the stone benches because I was seeing rocks. – Jenny Holzer
Well, I think in trying to make life seem real enough that one is moved to do something about the more atrocious things. By going really far afield into a completely fake world, maybe there’s a chance to make things resonant somehow – or in this case, truly terrifying. To make it as bad as the real stuff that’s happening. – Jenny Holzer
It’s necessary to start most work alone. But I’m tickled to death when I can pull somebody in or join someone, whether it’s borrowing poetry or traveling with an associate. – Jenny Holzer
I seldom have my stuff up unless I’m testing it. If I’m worrying about a painting, I put it up and see if I detest it quickly or slowly. Otherwise I have things by other artists. – Jenny Holzer
