Jenny Holzer at Somerset House (3094) April 2006 | Another

Jenny Holzer is in London this week illuminating buildings with poems. She's on the right side of this picture talking to some visitors while some poetry, by Samuel Beckett and other international writers, is being projected onto Somerset House.

Samuel Beckett's Postmodern Fictions
Beckett Centenary Festival

Posted on 4/12/2006 8:30:32 PM | Comments

1. Posted by maurits on 4/12/2006 12:51:24 PM
wow, great.... I'd love to see her works,
and you are so close to Jenny... did you address her?

2. Posted by stewart on 4/12/2006 2:27:48 PM
A good capture Tony, a good idea projecting poetry onto the building.

3. Posted by tony on 4/12/2006 3:19:51 PM
Maurits, hi, this word projection went through the evening and Jenny Holzer was there most of the time. We did talk, about the moon and the clouds and being in London.

4. Posted by tony on 4/12/2006 3:23:51 PM
Stewart, thank you. This is another way of bringing poetry onto the 'street'. But it was a chilly evening and not too many people came along.

5. Posted by twig on 4/12/2006 3:34:41 PM
Aw...not Samuel Beckett again ~ http://tinyurl.com/osvct
That's (at least) twice this week and he scares the sh*t outta me.
I told you the story?

6. Posted by Robert K. on 4/12/2006 7:51:24 PM
Very interesting. Great capture Tony :-)

7. Posted by funny on 4/12/2006 11:05:16 PM
great catch well idea of projecting on the bldg.

8. Posted by tony on 4/13/2006 12:11:28 AM
Twig, what's with Beckett? Jenny Holzer says she's been into Beckett since she was at college, back in the late 60s. Doing this work with the Barbican gave her the opportunity to re-visit his writings and see how it relates to contemporary poetry and prose, including Wislawa Szymborska, who is also featured in these projections. Maybe I'll have a look at 'The Complete Short Prose 1929-1989'.

9. Posted by tony on 4/13/2006 12:22:48 AM
Robert, thank you. The last time I can remember seeing Jenny Holzer's work in London was at the Institute of Contemporary Arts back in 1988 - nearly 20 years ago.

10. Posted by tony on 4/13/2006 12:28:32 AM
Funny, this is an interesting idea, but in practice the 'poetry' gets lost and you end up just seeing words scroll across a wall - I think it would be far more interesting with pictures, and maybe some (fractured) sounds - maybe (a few) spoken words.

11. Posted by robertm on 4/13/2006 2:03:18 AM
Hello tony, how to be in the right place at the right time and take a great shot. I can see where the skating rink was, and I wish I knew more about Samuel Beckett.
Thanks for the links and have a good time in Maldon -- robert

12. Posted by Neoslv on 4/16/2006 7:08:26 PM
Great shot with a lot of details. Also, very interesting idea projecting words onto buildings!

13. Posted by tony on 4/19/2006 7:04:21 AM
Hi Robert, Jenny Holzer was showing this work at a few different buildings during the week .. maybe we can have a Samuel Beckett inspired conversation next time we meet.
I'm in Maldon until the end of the week, so maybe we can meet next Thursday?

14. Posted by tony on 4/19/2006 7:10:17 AM
Hi Neoslv, thanks, you'll need a very powerful projector to get the words to show up like this.

15. Posted by Odon on 4/23/2006 3:59:02 PM
Nice catch! So cool to hear about Samuel Beckett. I read tree of his books. Molloy was my favorite. And I still have one to read.

16. Posted by tony on 4/27/2006 11:53:20 AM
Hi Odon, thanks for that .. I haven't read any of Beckett's work for many years, except for the bits of his poems on these walls.