Monday, November 06, 2006
This Inspired This?
Or in the visual form of this title:
= 
?
On Sunday I saw Elusive Signs: Bruce Nauman Works with Light at the MOCA and I am still blinking blurry purple and blue splotches from the demanding neon light exhibit complete with anagrams, humor (My Name As Though It Were Written on the Surface of Moon (1968) in which the artist just wrote bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuccccccccceeeeeee in neon lights was pretty funny), social commentary, and disorientation.
I mean, who needs mushrooms or non-drowsy Nightquil to feel like they're tripping when Corridor with Mirror and White Lights (1971)
or another large fluorescent light environment (the name totally escapes me) in which you walk down a narrowing walkway and squeeze into a large white room lit by a buzzing green florescent light - that makes you feel like you just crawled out of a bomb shelter post-atomic explosion - is available for the mere admission price of five bucks (three with my old student ID).
My personal favorite was Hanged Man (1985)
the most morbid of the bunch. I liked the idea of juxtaposing a children's game with Saddam Hussein’s fate. Plus the hard-on added an element of realism, humanity, and just blatant wrongness to the overall effect.
Also if you live in Miami and just happen to go to this museum, check out the most ridiculous fountain sculpture ever. In the fountain outside of the building is this cartoonish looking "snake" that's supposed to grant wishes if you throw a coin into the water, but the wish will only come true if the wish isn't selfish, which is totally lame because the whole point of making a wish is to commit an act of selfishness guilt-free. Isn't it? On top of this suck'n'blowness the story behind this magical wish-giving sculpture was completely fabricated by the artist.
I'm sorry, but modern artists can't just bust folklore out of their asses just so they can have a story to slap behind some silly piece they're trying to add meaning to, it's just too easy. It's cheating. That artist needs a swift kick in the face.
= ?On Sunday I saw Elusive Signs: Bruce Nauman Works with Light at the MOCA and I am still blinking blurry purple and blue splotches from the demanding neon light exhibit complete with anagrams, humor (My Name As Though It Were Written on the Surface of Moon (1968) in which the artist just wrote bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuccccccccceeeeeee in neon lights was pretty funny), social commentary, and disorientation.
I mean, who needs mushrooms or non-drowsy Nightquil to feel like they're tripping when Corridor with Mirror and White Lights (1971)
or another large fluorescent light environment (the name totally escapes me) in which you walk down a narrowing walkway and squeeze into a large white room lit by a buzzing green florescent light - that makes you feel like you just crawled out of a bomb shelter post-atomic explosion - is available for the mere admission price of five bucks (three with my old student ID).
My personal favorite was Hanged Man (1985)
the most morbid of the bunch. I liked the idea of juxtaposing a children's game with Saddam Hussein’s fate. Plus the hard-on added an element of realism, humanity, and just blatant wrongness to the overall effect.
Also if you live in Miami and just happen to go to this museum, check out the most ridiculous fountain sculpture ever. In the fountain outside of the building is this cartoonish looking "snake" that's supposed to grant wishes if you throw a coin into the water, but the wish will only come true if the wish isn't selfish, which is totally lame because the whole point of making a wish is to commit an act of selfishness guilt-free. Isn't it? On top of this suck'n'blowness the story behind this magical wish-giving sculpture was completely fabricated by the artist.
I'm sorry, but modern artists can't just bust folklore out of their asses just so they can have a story to slap behind some silly piece they're trying to add meaning to, it's just too easy. It's cheating. That artist needs a swift kick in the face.
// posted by Whoreese @ 3:26 PM 
Comments:
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I love how your only blog comments are solicitations from complete strangers for crap you never need. So here's a normal one from me to you.
Bruce Nauman should stick with words. Yes seeing neon cartoon clowns with penises is subversive and funny... but clowns are stupid. Political commentary should be kept to cartoonists. The strongest works were the ones that involved altering the viewers notions of perception by physically modifying our senses (the green room) or, challenging our knowledge of words (the "silence, violins, violence" one). And as for the "Friends with You" fountain. I demand my 18 cents back.
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Bruce Nauman should stick with words. Yes seeing neon cartoon clowns with penises is subversive and funny... but clowns are stupid. Political commentary should be kept to cartoonists. The strongest works were the ones that involved altering the viewers notions of perception by physically modifying our senses (the green room) or, challenging our knowledge of words (the "silence, violins, violence" one). And as for the "Friends with You" fountain. I demand my 18 cents back.
# posted by 
: 6:06 PM
: 6:06 PM << Home
