Installation // Bruce Nauman - Preston

Last week I visited the Bruce Nauman display at the Harris museum in Preston. The exhibition was part of the Tates's Artist Rooms project and heres what the Tate has to say about Nauman.

American sculptor noted also for his environments, films and videotapes. Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Studied at the University of Wisconsin at Madison 1960-4 (first mathematics, then art), and at the University of California at Davis 1965-6. Stopped painting in 1965 and began to make objects, performance pieces and films.

The display included his famous "Violins, Violence and Silence" piece made out of neon tubes that are illuminated sporadically. Here is an image I captured of the sculpture in full illumination. 

I enjoyed the way the colours bled into each other as well as the almost incoherent placement of the lettering. "L's" and "E's" are inverted or flipped so that the word isn't immediately recognisable, drawing you into the piece. This may be something I look into as I plan to use some text in the loops for my sculpture. 

This is a photo taken outside Nauman's Changing Light Corridor With Rooms installation. I enjoyed the interactivity of the piece as you walk into and around the corridor experiencing different shadows left from the seemingly random that the lightbulbs are illuminated. The choice of light and dark seemed to be random, I'd like to try and replicate that as well as the interactive elements.