Bruce Nauman My work comes out of being frustrated about the human condition. And about how people refuse to understand other people Born in 1941, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Lives in Galisteo, New Mexico Bruce Nauman is recognized internationally as one of the most significant contemporary artists. Although he began his career as a painter, Nauman now works with sculpture, video, film, printmaking, performance, and installation. His work often concentrates on a progression or an action, contemplating how that progression becomes a work of art. In numerous works, Nauman ponders the realities of the human cycle of life and death. Violent Incident (1986) Video, unconfirmed: 2000 x 2500 x 900 mm, installation In this simple dinner party scenario a practical joke escalates into bickering and violence. Nauman hired actors to perform it, getting them to play the scene a number of different ways. The variations include one where the male/female roles are reversed; a sequence showing the rehearsals which include the directors 1
instructions on the sound track; and slow motion segments of the chair-pulling action. The wall of blaring monitors, the scripting, and hypnotic repetition all build the aggressive tension. Moral judgements are called into question as the power relations shift and the drama unfolds. [From the display caption May 2002, Tate Collection)] Good Boy Bad Boy (1985) Colour video and monitors, duration: 60 min.,52 sec., installation Bruce Nauman s performances, films and video works often use language games and repetition to explore the nature of language and perception. In this work two monitors are placed at head height, so that the performers stare out directly at the viewer. Two professional actors recite the same series of one hundred phrases, beginning in a flat tone but becoming more emotional. Because they are talking at different speeds, the actors fall out of step with each other, and the continuously looped videos become out of sequence. Many of the statements imply moral judgements which, through repetition, seem increasingly threatening. [From the display caption July 2008, Tate Collection] MAPPING THE STUDIO II (Fat Chance John Cage) (2001) Nauman on Mapping the Studio II Mapping the Studio II with color shift, flip, flop, & flip/flop (Fat Chance John Cage) 2001 takes the artist s studio as its subject. As Nauman explains, he had recently finished two large commissions which were the culmination of a train of thought, and was getting frustrated in the studio as he did not have any interesting new ideas to work on. He began to think about using items that had been left in the studio from previous projects, and then noticed that the cat, who also lived in the studio, was currently struggling to keep up with all the field mice that had been appearing. Taking this as an intrinsic part of studio activity, Nauman decided to film whatever was happening in the studio. He set up the camera in seven places he knew were highly travelled by the mice. You want to do something So out of desperation you finally do something, anything it doesn t matter if it s a good idea or a bad idea, you just have to do something. There s a degree of anxiety and frustration that is a motivator to stop worrying about whether it s a good idea or a bad idea and just do it. Nauman was also influenced by his reading of the journals of nineteenth century explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in which they recount their day-by-day experiences of their expedition across 2
America. Even though they were mostly reporting mundane and repetitive details, such as the weather and the position of the moon, Nauman noticed that something interesting happened almost every day. This became part of the inspiration for the map that Nauman recorded in the notebooks. Nauman would set up his camera in the studio and leave it running until the tape ran out and the next day he would go through the footage meticulously recording the activities in his notebook. Although a viewer who enters the installation space when no action is happening in any of the seven projections might think that there is nothing going on, Nauman points out that there is always something happening, from the insects flying around to the shadows and patterns in the room although the cat never catches a mouse on film! You begin to [notice] smaller and smaller incidents. At first I was looking for the cat and the mouse and then I started to listen to the flies buzzing round or to see the beautiful patterns that the moths make as they fly around in front of the camera. There was a lot more going on than I was anticipating. 3
The feeling of frustration that initially engendered the piece is not carried through into the finished work instead of frustration, in fact, Nauman likens the feeling he gets from the work to one of meditation. He points out furthermore, that if a viewer is trying too hard to focus on the action they might miss something else, so one way to approach it is to relax, become passive and let the piece just happen. Trying hard to pay attention is when you miss things, so you have to kind of un-focus yourself. It s a very relaxing state if you can allow yourself. Whether a viewer drops into the installation for just a few minutes or stays for longer in order to experience time passing, there will always be something going on with or without the viewer s presence. In this way the work has a real-time presence and a sense of permanence: it just felt like it needed to be so long so that you wouldn t necessarily sit down and watch the whole thing, but could come and go I wanted that feeling that the piece was just there, almost like an object, just there, ongoing, being itself. [Bruce Nauman, interview with Michael Auping] [Bruce Nauman s Words, Janet Kraynak (ed.), 2002,The MIT Press / Cambridge, MA / London, England, 2003, p. 397-404.] Anthro-Socio On three projection surfaces and six monitors, one sees the head of a man shown in different takes. While continually revolving about his own axis, in a variety of tonalities he sings «FEED ME/ EAT ME/ ANTHROPOLOGY,» «HELP ME/ HURT ME/ SOCIOLOGY,» and «FEED ME, HELP ME, EAT ME, HURT ME». In order to grasp the full effect of the installation «Anthro/Socio,» the space has to be entered. The calls heard from different directions irritate as much as the contradictory demands, aimed at the simplest of bodily needs and questioning them at the same time. The repetition of the alarming singsong, and multiple video shots of the singer, also create a disturbing moment. In «Anthro/ Socio,» not only because of the all-encompassing sensual experience does the viewer become part of the artwork; the installation also encourages viewers to give thought to the inherent qualities of subjects and objects, and to human beings in society. 4
World Peace (Projected & Received) Two works made in 1996 constitute precise reiterations of this tension*: World Peace (Projected) and World Peace (Received). In the first, five large-format video projections feature actors who seem to be trying to communicate with each other (some play deaf and dumb people) and with the spectator. Simple, highly Beckettian sentences are exchanged. A fast-moving edit switches the image and voice from one screen to another. The spectator is encouraged to move around in this installation in which he or she can grasp only fragments of text. However, the spectacular in this installation disorients him more than it encourages him to take an interest in the characters. In World Peace (Received) on the other hand, the spectator is encouraged to take a seat amid five monitors in a rather more intimate space. Although the spectator is surrounded by the same actors and their attempts to communicate, the work evokes the relationship established between television and viewers. The gestures and phrases are the same as before; only the montage is different, with an extremely fast rhythm leaving the viewer very little mental space. *The distinction between two opposing attitudes: to consume; to burn, wear away, wear out, spend time, be passive and to consummate; to perfect, complete, accomplish, be active. [Bruce Nauman, Hayward Gallery, London, 1998] World Peace (Received) World Peace (Projected) 5