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.

Now she’s back at Baltic with her largest UK exhibition for 15 years – and this time she’s inside, if you discount the one big banner on the north face of the building which declares: “The beginning of the war will be secret.”

This exhibition, put together with major galleries in Chicago and Basel, Switzerland, makes a grand and colourful spectacle of text either gleaned from official sources, such as the US government, or from Holzer’s own fertile imagination.

Occupying the whole of Level 4 is a new work, For Chicago, in which all the text Holzer has ever written – five hours’ worth – whizzes in yellow writing along 10 parallel strips across the floor.

Behind the screen at the far end is Monument, bathed in pink light, in which 22 semi-circular LED lighting strips mimic spinning wheels of words: “Religion causes as many problems as it solves”; and “Sin is a means of social control”.

Earlier work figures on Level 3, including the Redaction paintings inspired by America’s involvement in the two Gulf Wars in Iraq.

You can dwell on the text or revel in the brilliant deployment of technology. Either way, it’s a dazzling show. On until May 16 it’s worth seeing.