two rectangular blocks of red with horizontal black brushstrokes, with drips extending from bottom; four lines of identical text with horizontal lines drawn through them--two lines at top of sheet, two lines at bottom of sheet; two lines of text between red rectangles--bottom line of text is, "President's Surveillance Program"; received in heavy distressed, darkened metal frame. Not signed (see Notes)

%C2%A9 Jenny Holzer %2F Brand X Editions%2C New York %2F Artists Rights Society %28ARS%29%2C New York

President's Surveillance Program, 2016

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President’s Surveillance Program is part of Jenny Holzer’s long-running “Redaction” series of paintings, drawings, and prints. By modifying previously redacted (censored) U.S. government documents to emphasize their suppressed content, Holzer highlights the extremes of sanctioned secrecy and surveillance. Here, she enlarged the original document and reproduced it on vellum (treated animal skin, also known as parchment), a reference to the parchment on which the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were written. In so doing, she exposes the irony that constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech, press, and protest are often the first casualties of government abuse. Holzer has rendered the censor’s redactions with broad, gestural strokes, in a brilliant shade of red, implying blood and emphasizing that redaction is the work of human hands and minds. The effect is a powerful suggestion that the cost of rising government secrecy is the loss of personal freedom.

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Details
Title
President's Surveillance Program
Artist Life
born 1950
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2017.115.2
Provenance
The artist, New York; (Hauser & Wirth Gallery, Zurich Switzerland, sold to Mersky, June 9, 2017); Robert B. Mersky, Minneapolis; given to MIA, 2017
Curator Approved

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two rectangular blocks of red with horizontal black brushstrokes, with drips extending from bottom; four lines of identical text with horizontal lines drawn through them--two lines at top of sheet, two lines at bottom of sheet; two lines of text between red rectangles--bottom line of text is, "President's Surveillance Program"; received in heavy distressed, darkened metal frame. Not signed (see Notes)

© Jenny Holzer / Brand X Editions, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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