ART CITIES:London- Bruce Nauman

Intrigued and inspired by the neon beer signs on shopfronts in his San Francisco neighborhood, Bruce Nauman created his first neon piece, “Window” or “Wall Sign”, in 1967. Light offered Nauman a medium both elusive and effervescent, but one that could also aggressively convey a message. He wanted, he said, to achieve “An art that would kind of disappear…that was supposed to not quite look like art”.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Blain|Southern Archive

Over the first 30 years of his career, Bruce Nauman used the medium of light to explore the twists and turns of perception, logic, and meaning with the earnest playfulness that characterizes all his art. Blain|Southern in London presents the significant architectural installation “Natural Light, Blue Light Room”, the work is exhibited for the first time since its initial presentation (Ace Gallery- Vancouver, 1-15/12/71). “In the gallery, there were some skylights above one wall. I installed blue fluorescent lights below the sky lights. It messed up your ability to see the space clearly because when you got under them you started getting a lot of afterimages. Everything became a little jumpy… There was nothing else in the space. So the idea was that it would be hard to know what to focus on and even if you did, it would be hard to focus”. While in many ways representative of the minimalist aesthetic of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Natural Light, the installation also reveals a specific set of ideas that concerned Btuce Nauman at the time. He devised “Natural Light, Blue Light Room” at a time when artists were attempting to reduce to the barest minimum what was necessary for an action, object or intervention to be declared an artwork. Nauman describes the concept and effect of the installation as an experiment in “messing up” the psychological and physiological state of the viewer. To this day he continues to investigate responses caused by presenting two sets of information simultaneously.

Info: Blain|Southern Gallery, 4 Hanover Square, London, Duration 5/10-12/11/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 10:00-17:00, www.blainsouthern.com