Mind Fuck

I went to Bruce Nauman's Mind Fuck exhibition at Hauser & Wirth a few weeks ago.

'The artist once stated that he wished to make ‘art that was just there all at once…like getting hit in the back of the neck with a baseball bat’.'

This exhibition shows works focusing on his interests of , life, death, sex, agression, language and psychoanalysis.

This room you had to squeeze through a gap t get through and out making you feel like your trapped a bit in this green hell. I went with my friend Jo and I can't tell you how awful she looked green. It was like having been abducted by aliens or something. Waking up and not knowing where you are in this strange surreal green world where you are conscious there is no easy escape.

This is made based on casts from taxidermy animals. They are dragged round in a lifeless way or like they have just given in or up to the monotonous circle they are tracing.  "endless chase" "wearily rotating" . Originally the objects are meant to scrape and drag along the concrete floor making a screeching noise however they now scuff against MDF. This is in attempt to conserve the piece. I think it would have been a lot more effective without the MDF as it would have been a much more painful experience. 

 Here the neons flack on on of changing between men and woman, mouths open and mouths closed. constant changing, nothings stable or steady about it.

This is Good boy, Bad Boy, I originally saw this in video form at Tate Liverpool. Here it is in neon form constantly flashing on and of changing the amount of information shown not leaving really any time in-between to reflect on each statement shown, you're strait on to the next one. Or if your given more than one phrase it's hard to manage to read them all at once. It's really bright assaulting your eyes.  

'Nauman has used the medium of lights and bright colours to create an unsettling vision for the viewer, akin to bouts of psychosis and mangling of the mind, looking to dream interpretation as a huge influence. His work sprang out of an era of popularity in Gestalt therapy and behaviourism, of observation over symbolism, creating a body of work that pushes the viewer into an uncomfortable position as observer of human action.'

Nauman is such an important artist to me as in many ways he wants to achieve what I want to achieve through my work. The unsettling vision for the viewer, the mangling or the mind, pushing the viewer into an uncomfortable position, something that is like being hit in the back by a baseball bat. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2013/jan/30/bruce-nauman-art-video-review