Access a slow-looking exercise of this work.
Transcript
Narrator: This 2023 painting by Jenny Holzer is titled "Protect Protect metal." The horizontally oriented canvas is enormous, about 8 1/2 feet wide and 6 1/2 feet tall.
Gleaming gold leaf gilds much of the linen canvas’s surface. Light bounces off the metal in various directions as one approaches and moves around the work. Much of the gold surface has a subtle grid pattern, built by the delicate metallic squares of carefully applied leaf. The edges of each squared leaf appear brownish or rusty.
Nearly filling the entire gold composition is an aerial map silkscreened in black oil paint. Most of the map is made up of the black paint mottled with gold leaf, similar to a halftone print of densely clustered dots. Interrupting this are bold black topographical features, such as rivers and lakes. Across the composition, words sit in rectangular blocks of silver- and gold-colored leaf in various shades, some atop the map. There are about twenty of these blocks, which contain bold, black sans serif words, including: “Protect,” “Fix,” “Suppress,” “Isolate,” “Seize,” “Shock And Awe,” “Exploit,” “Gain Control,” “Seize Oil,” “Simultaneous Security And Stability Ops,” and “2 Divisions.” Black arrows leading from some of these words point to locations on the map.
Another block of text at the composition’s upper right reads, “SECRET//ORCON,REL TO USA,CMFI. DECLASSIFIED BY: RADM R.T. Moeller. DECLASSIFY ON: 16 June 2005. ACTION OFFICER: Mr. M.D. Fitzgerald, Civ.”
Four small, silver-colored airplane icons across the map’s surface each follow a black arrow marking the plane’s trajectory. The names of cities are also present in indistinct text, including “Baghdad,” “An Najaf,” and “As Samawah,” identifying this map shows the country of Iraq.
The words and symbols across the map build a busy infographic apparently visualizing strategy. The word “Protect” repeats at the top, left, and bottom of the map. At the top, text reads “SEIZE N. Oil” and at the bottom “SEIZE S. Oil.” Three of the four silver planes point toward Baghdad, where a silver box reads “Isolate.” Gold arrows from the north, west, and south also point toward Baghdad, each containing the capitalized word: “EXPLOIT.”
"Protect Protect metal" represents a slide from a 2002 briefing presentation prepared by US Central Command for President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld detailing a plan for the invasion of Iraq by US forces under the code name POLO STEP. The slides reveal various iterations of war planning and outline a five-phase plan of invasion—from initial planning to complete destruction of the Iraqi regime to post-hostile fallout—estimating that US forces would be almost completely redeployed out of Iraq within 45 months of invasion, i.e., December 2006. The plans reflect continued debate and discrepancy with regard to the expected size and duration of US intervention in Iraq. It was released February 2007 via Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
This piece is part of a body of Holzer’s work consisting of declassified government documents transferred by hand to linen. 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.”
