Access a slow-looking exercise of this work.

Transcript
Narrator: Three marble benches sit among a field of irregular chunks of granite, limestone, and marble in Jenny Holzer’s 2024 artwork titled "broken." The benches, in red or white granite, are roughly 3 feet long, 1 1/2 feet deep, and 1 1/2 feet high. Each is made of three polished stone slabs: a long rectangle for the seat supported by legs made of a smaller slab on either end, arranged perpendicular to the seat. The benches look solid and immovable, weighing up to 500 pounds, and in this installation are tipped and installed at various angles.  

Upon closer look, the smooth and shiny surface of the bench seats have been engraved with capitalized, serif letters. On the curving Indian red granite bench, there are engraved texts. Narrated by a screen reader, they read, 

DIE FAST AND QUIET WHEN THEY INTERROGATE  
YOU OR LIVE SO LONG THAT THEY ARE 
ASHAMED TO HURT YOU ANYMORE

A rectangular Bethel White granite bench is tipped forward onto its side, its seat now perpendicular to the gallery floor. The engraved text here reads, 

LITTLE QUEENIE 
ANY NUMBER OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
LIE FACE DOWN ON THE BED AND 
WORK ON ENERGY HOUSING LABOR 
JUSTICE EDUCATION TRANSPORTATION 
AGRICULTURE AND BALANCE OF TRADE

Another rectangular Bethel White granite bench is tipped to touch the other white granite bench and installed at an angle, with two of its legs sitting up against the angled space below the gallery wall. It reads, 

THERE’S NO REASON TO SLEEP 
CURLED UP AND BENT 
IT’S NOT COMFORTABLE 
IT’S NOT GOOD FOR YOU AND IT 
DOESN’T PROTECT YOU FROM DANGER 
IF YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT AN ATTACK 
YOU SHOULD STAY AWAKE 
OR SLEEP LIGHTLY WITH 
LIMBS UNFURLED FOR ACTION 

Interspersed among the benches lie broken pieces of marble, limestone, and granite in irregular chunks like rubble, varying in color from white to tan, gray, and black. Each stone’s rough and jagged edges are contrasted with straight and smooth planes, giving the impression that these chunks have been broken from larger sculpted stone forms.

Fragments of engraved texts run off the edges of the stone chucks, giving the impression that they are in fact broken elements of similar benches or other sculpted stone forms. One broken piece about two feet by two feet reads, 

“…WHILE HELD DOWN 
AGREEING TO STAY STILL  
WAITING TO BE TRANSPORTED” 

Another fragment reads,  

“…OF DOMINANCE 
...R BITING YOUR STOMACH 
…TO WASH 
…INTO WALLS” 

A sandy stone reads, 

“ARE TAKEN” 

A white stone reads, 

“MANUAL 
MONO…” 

A small black granite chunk simply reads,  

“A… 
EVER… 
A…”  

In 1986, Holzer turned to engraving text in stone, thus complementing the modern and ephemeral formats in which she was working at the time, such as posters and electronic signs, with the historical resonance and formal elegance of stone. In addition to benches, she has also incised texts the paving stones of memorials. In public areas, stoneworks engraved with text surprise by contrasting the form of official inscriptions with content that ranges from the revelatory and wild to the frankly emotional.  

Holzer’s first uses of stone in the 1980s coincided with her first formal installations. Simple arrangements of stoneworks in LED-lit rooms—including her 1989 ring of benches in the Guggenheim’s rotunda—created spaces of contemplation reminiscent of assemblies and waiting rooms. Granite and marble offered viewers places to sit while lending Holzer’s words permanence. Those functions and associations are upended by this chaotic array of mismatched benches and salvaged fragments of smashed stoneworks.

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