Access a slow-looking exercise of this work.

Transcript
Narrator: These paintings by Jenny Holzer from 2024 are collectively titled "stake in the heart." The work is comprised of seven rectangular linen canvases, each measuring the same size at roughly 3 1/2 feet tall by 2 1/2 feet wide.

Each canvas gleams, its entire surface nearly covered in gold leaf. Light bounces off the metal in various directions as one approaches and moves around the work. The composition of each canvas displays a rough grid pattern of 3-inch squares, built where the delicate leaf squares slightly overlap with their neighbors. Within each square, the brightness of the gold varies: In some areas it gives a bright, opaque finish. In others, the gold is transparent where the leaf is not fully adhered to the underlayer of red oil paint. In these areas, the gold becomes darker, a more muted reddish gold.

In a few sporadic areas of each composition, gold leaf seems to be fully absent, revealing the pure color of the oil underpainting beneath. These areas are a bright reddish-orange color, boldly standing in contrast with the shining metallic leaf. They look as if the leaf has been scratched off, crackled, or only partially transferred onto the canvas surface. The one-inch sides of each canvas are painted the same vibrant red-orange.

On close inspection, in the lower-left corner of each canvas’s composition is a small letterhead mark reading, “AUTHENTICATED U.S. GOVERNMENT INFORMATION GPO,” and to its right is a stylized silhouette of an eagle. Running across the top of each canvas are lines of small text in a serif typeface. 

The texts on the seven canvases from left to right read:

“Pls have POTUS call this off at the Capitol. Urge rioters to disperse. I pray to you.” 

“Note: I was able to keep the crazies off the stage. I stripped all branding of those nutty groups and removed videos of all of the psychos. Glad it fought it.” 

“POTUS needs to calm this shit down” 

“Please don’t let the President concede. We must exhaust all options” 

“Mark 
I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol 
Please tell the President to calm people 
This isn’t the way to solve anything" 

“If POTUS allows this to occur...we’re driving a stake in the heart of the federal republic...”  

“I got the base FIRED UP:” 

"stake in the heart" is sourced from a collection of text messages sent to and from Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s chief of staff from 2020 to 2021, before and during the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol. The correspondence reveals minute-to-minute reactions of the Trump team’s inner circle as violence unfolded, many urging Trump to call off the crowds that hoped to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election to the presidency. The messages were submitted to the US House of Representatives Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, released in the committee’s supporting investigation materials and cited in its final December 2022 report.

This piece is part of a body of Holzer’s work consisting of declassified government documents transferred by hand to linen. Her work 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.”

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