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Artwork Page for Laments: Death came and he looked like...

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Laments: Death came and he looked like...

1987
Part of a set, view all set records
(American, b.1950)
America
L.E.D. sign, marble
325.1 x 24.1 x 13.3 cm (128 x 9 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.); 45.7 x 61 x 137.2 cm (18 x 24 x 54 in.)
Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller 2019.19
© Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: not on view
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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Did You Know?

The same text is displayed in motion on the LED sign and static on the surface of the sarcophagus.

Description

Jenny Holzer created her Laments series, to which this work belongs, as a response to the HIV / AIDS epidemic. The Laments are based on 13 texts written by Holzer, which she has described as “voices of the dead.” In Laments: Death came and he looked like . . . , Holzer gave form to each text as an engraving carved into the tops of sculptures resembling sarcophagi and as words that flow across LED signs. Together these two representations both memorialize the dead and endow their voices with immediacy.

Laments: Death came and he looked like...

1987

Jenny Holzer

(American, b.1950)
America

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