Jenny Holzer exhibition opens at the Baltic

Mar 8 2010 by Barbara Hodgson, The Journal

DAVID WHETSTONE revels in the new Jenny Holzer exhibition at Baltic, a series of fast-moving text messages writ large.

IN THE age of text messaging and Twitter, communication has become fast and unspectacular – rapid little morsels of text zapping unseen between two people.

How does this ubiquitous, unremarkable fact of modern life translate to a contemporary art gallery the size of a cathedral?

Well, here’s how. American artist Jenny Holzer has been text messaging since the days when phones came on the end of flexes and postmen still delivered letters penned in ink.

Some of the pithy statements for which she has become celebrated were projected onto Tyneside structures in 2000 as part of the Baltic’s pre-opening programme.

Newcastle’s Castle Keep, the old Tuxedo Princess and the building that would become Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art were all her ‘canvases’.

Messages – Holzer’s so-called Truisms – included “Potential counts for nothing” and “Sacrificing yourself for a bad cause is not a moral act”.