Bruce Nauman is Awesome

Yes, I used the dreaded ‘A’ word, but there really is no other way to describe the way I feel about the work of Bruce Nauman. I love his use of repetiton, a tool used (repeated? huh huh huh…) in many of his video works. Please forgive me for the terrible quality of the following YouTube videos…

On a loop, just one sound ‘mmmm’. The way the man sounds the ‘mmmm’ changes in pitch and volume, both pitch and volume rise towards the end of the loop, this adds intensity. Watching and listening to it makes me feel as though the man may explode at any second, his spinning actions and increased emotion reminds me of the dread and slight fear of a pan on the brink of boiling over. It’s creshendo as it rumbles and spits, growing angrier and louder, and then calming down when we take the lid off. That is a terrible analogy, but you get the idea. Visually it is also very intense, the man, stuck in a never ending loop of spinning round is displayed on a projection which covers a large wall (I’ve seen it in person, It’s quite intimidating!). As is covers most of your view-space as you watch, you feel as though you are being pulled in, spinning around the room with the video, it can be quite nauseating… There are also televisions which show the same loop, although one has been flipped vertically.

Bruce Nauman – ‘Feed Me’
Another INTENSE video peice from the man himself. Again, sorry about the quality of this video.. but you get the idea. If something is reapeated as many times does it become routine/ritual? Could i apply this to my own studio work?.. we shall see.. Experiments to follow.

Also check out ‘Good Boy, Bad Boy’ if you can find a decent video, here’s a little about it here:

Good Boy, Bad Boy