Access a slow-looking exercise of this work.

Transcript
Narrator: Jenny Holzer’s "blades," from 2024, consists of two cast replicas of human scapulae, or shoulder blades. Each is about 6 inches tall by 5 inches wide, with a depth of 2 inches. The replicas are made of urethane resin and are pigmented with acrylic paint, appearing slightly milky and yellowed.

Composed in an angled shape, they are oriented with the pointed edge tilted upward like wings. They are attached to the “web walls” of the Guggenheim rotunda’s ramps. Tucked away, above us, and at a slight distance, the replicas are positioned in a way that evokes a large butterfly hovering on the architecture’s curves. The scapulae appear thin and fragile and are lit with a spotlight, creating a clear winglike shadow on the wall behind it. 

In the mid-1990s, Holzer began incorporating human bones into her work in response to the wars taking place in the former Yugoslavia, in which sexual violence was both a strategy and a weapon. “I went to the body,” Holzer explains. “I wanted the consequences of war, murder, and assault to be seen as real.” Here, the cast replicas of human scapulae reference the long history of wartime rape and the devastating effects it continues to have on women and girls throughout the world.

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