In 1941, today, Bruce Nauman was born. His work has always intrigued me.
I saw once a full on one man retrospective at the Basel Kunsthalle and was blown away. He lives in the desert in New Mexico with Susan Rothenberg the painter.
Glass made out of sand and neon which is a gas. Ephemeral. Yet with messages of so called statements in the English language, quasi-truths, mindbogglers in gorgeous colours. How do you respond? Does it make you think or feel or...?
What if you do not know English, then what? Art for the English speaking only?
Jenny Holzer is another word/text/moving light artist.
Barbara Kruger, Lawrence Wiener, Jack Pierson, Ed Ruscha all work with text, words, meanings, political messages...We are surrounded by words and we live in a very oral/aural world as well as a visual one too. I can not help but read practically every word I see, therefore it is wonderful to go on a word vacation/holiday in a foreign country where your ears can rest and your eyes too. No bombardment of concepts or none, no meanings to think about or not.. A cleansing.
Mind you, have you ever tried spotting typos and find that you fill in the blanks?
