Jenny Holzer projections can be found this week in an intimate setting in New York City: amid the outdoor greenery of the New York Botanical Gardens (NYBG). Beginning tonight (June 10, 2015), visitors can enjoy contemporary art and the life and art of Frida Kahlo set in a festive atmosphere in one fell swoop.
“FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life” after hours! presents four consecutive nights of scrolling light projections by Jenny Holzer that connect to the exhibition "FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life". Together, the evening provides a mix of installation, painting and works on paper with the natural artistry found at the New York Botanical Gardens.
Presented from dusk until 10 p.m. (weather permitting), Jenny Holzer projections present waves of poetry in light that will sweep over the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. The projection will envelop the distinctive glass walls which also houses the exhibition "FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life.” The installation loops continually. The piece has a running time of around one hour.
The Holzer installation includes poems by Mexico’s Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz, verses from contemporary Mexican female poets, and a selection of powerful passages from Frida Kahlo’s own diary.
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©2015 Jenny Holzer, courtesy Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Text: from "Motion" by Octavio Paz, translated by Eliot Weinberger, from The Collected Poems: 1957–1987, ©1986 by Octavio Paz and Eliot Weinberger. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
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Jenny Holzer has presented her astringent ideas, arguments, and sorrows in public places and international exhibitions for over 30 years. The public presentation of her art is integral to the delivery of the work.
Holzer has used posters pasted in New York City and T-shirts as mediums and has worked extensively with LED projections where words steadily unfold, with realizations striking and reforming for viewers as the artwork is fully experienced. Most recently, Holzer has presented light projections on landscape and architecture. Her projections have been presented on significant architectural spaces all over world and set in nearly 40 cities in over 15 countries.
FRIDA AL FRESCO
The Jenny Holzer projections are timed to coincide with NYBG's "Frida al Fresco" evenings. The series allows visitors to visit the New York Botanical Gardens at night and experience the "FRIDA KAHLO" exhibit in a different light.
When not screening Holzer projections, "Frida al Fresco" can feature live music or performance art. The evening includes a complimentary Modelo Especial draft cerveza or a Jose Cuervo Tradicional margarita to help set the mood. The series runs through October 31, 2015 on select dates. Check the website for details.
"FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden Life"
“FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life” is the first solo presentation of Frida Kahlo’s work in New York City in over 10 years. The exhibition is the first to focus exclusively on Kahlo’s intense interest in the botanical world.
The exhibition presents 14 artworks that highlight Kahlo's engagement with nature in her native country of Mexico, as seen in her garden, decoration of her home and in the complex use of plant imagery found in her paintings. Paintings and works on paper make up the exhibition.
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"Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird" by Frida Kahlo, 1940. Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. © 2014 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
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Kahlo’s courtyard garden at the Casa Azul, her lifelong home in Mexico City, is conjured through simulation in the Botanical Garden's conservatory.
According to NYBG, Casa Azul was a large enclosed garden of native and exotic plants with vivid blue walls and a folkloric décor. It was expression of Kahlo’s creativity and her appreciation for an aesthetic rooted in Mexican folk culture and pre-Hispanic heritage.
For the Kahlo exhibition, NYBG horticulturists and exhibition staff collaborated with the guest curator and designer to convey the sense of a courtyard garden visitors encounter at the Casa Azul today. The lava stone walls and the pyramid are modeled after structures found at the Casa Azul with the pyramid occupying almost the same size, according to NYBG.
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BASIC FACTS: Jenny Holzer Projections will be presented from June 10 to June 13, 2015 from dusk (around 6:30 p.m.) to 10 p.m. The art installation is part of "Frida al Fresco" evenings. Tickets cost $35 for non-members and $25 for members. For information or to purchase tickets, visit www.nybg.org.
“FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life” is on view from May 16 to November 1, 2015. The exhibition presents 14 paintings or works on paper that reflect Frida Kahlo's connection to the natural world.
The New York Botanical Garden is located at 2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, New York 10458.
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