UChiVotes undergraduate voting ambassadors, who encouraged their peers to vote early, pose with one of Jenny Holzer’s trucks. (YOU BE MY ALLY, 2020 LED truck. Text: University of Chicago students. Chicago, Illinois, USA. © Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society [ARS], NY. Photo: Christopher Dilts)
In the run-up to the 2020 election, Jenny Holzer, EX’74, and UChicago students collaborate on an art project to get out the vote.
On two days in late October, a small fleet of LED trucks drove around the city, displaying forceful get-out-the-vote messages.
The trucks were part of YOU BE MY ALLY, a collaborative art piece by world-renowned artist Jenny Holzer, EX’74. More than 70 nonpartisan messages, written by UChicago students, appeared on the trucks anonymously and in all caps—like the text in all of Holzer’s works. Here are some examples.
THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE CANNOT BE SILENCED
YOU’RE NOT OVERREACTING
VOTE BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO HAPPY?
YOUR BIRTHRIGHT IS MY LIFE’S DESIRE
DO MORE THAN MAIL IT IN
LET THE WORLD REVERBERATE YOUR VOICE
APATHY IS UNACCEPTABLE
VOTE LIKE NOBODY’S WATCHING
VOTE IT’S FREE!
DO YOU WANT THE FUTURE TO BE DIFFERENT?
AT THIS POINT HOW COULD YOU NOT?
I REGRET BELIEVING THAT MY VOTE DIDN’T MATTER
IF YOU DON’T USE YOUR VOTE NOBODY WILL
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN VIBRANT
VOTE LIKE YOUR CHILDREN ARE WATCHING
VOTE TO DECIDE WHICH WAY WE GO NEXT!