Access a slow-looking exercise of this work.

Transcript
Narrator: This work by Jenny Holzer from 2024 is titled "cruciform Water board." The vertically oriented painting is 2 feet high by 1 1/2 feet wide and made of oil paint on linen canvas.

Two deep black geometric blocks, one stacked over the other, comprise much of the composition. The larger of the two sits roughly in the top three-fifths of the canvas, while the second block sits below it in the bottom two-fifths. The blocks are the same width and centered on the midline of the canvas. The rest of the canvas is ivory, creating a frame around the blocks as if a horizontal ivory stripe separates the two black blocks.

The upper block is roughly a square shape, with two small horizontal rectangles jutting out from the center of its top and bottom in a squat cruciform shape. The lower block is a horizontal rectangular shape. At the bottom of the composition is a third block, much smaller than the others: a small horizontal rectangle, also centered on the midline of the canvas and separated from the block above it.

On closer inspection, in the ivory space between the two prominent blocks, a small line of black printed text reads “Water board” in serif letters, thinly underlined. At the bottom right of the composition, numbers read “0000090,” and below, the number “18.” 

This piece is part of a body of Holzer’s work consisting of declassified government documents transferred by hand to linen, meticulously layered with oil paint to create a richly textured surface. Holzer draws from art-historical references for painterly techniques and visual themes, including Alexander Rodchenko’s experiments with color, light, and form. The content of the documents—often obscured by heavy redactions—ranges from post-9/11 US military records to contemporary reports on the use of artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons by the US government. The deeply tactile painting process overlays the bureaucratic anonymity of the documents and amplifies methods of censorship and concealment, rematerializing redacted events. Holzer has said of her work in the medium: “I wanted to show time and care. I wanted it to be an indicator of sincerity and attention. I wanted the works to be human.” 

"cruciform Water board" replicates a page from an undated CIA document on interrogation techniques. The document is almost entirely redacted except for reference to waterboarding. It was released in May 2008 via the Freedom of Information Act after being requested by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ver todos los episodios