Reviews & Articles

(A review of the art exhibition Bruce Nauman: An Artist's Artist at Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong by John Batten, in Chinese & English) Please scroll for English

Above image: 

Bruce Nauman: Silence +Violins = Violence, Graphite, charcoal and pastel on paper, 1981. Pinault collection, courtesy of Tai Kwun Contemporary (photo: John Batten)

布魯斯‧瑙曼

約翰百德 

近期在大館當代美術館舉辦的布魯斯‧瑙曼（Bruce Nauman）個展中，最令人滿意的部門當屬F 展廳：全面呈現了瑙曼的影像作品，配合以小部份霓虹燈裝置和繪畫作品。這些影像佔據了整層空間並有意相互交叉，呈現出一片嘈雜和閃爍的錄像畫面。

此種呈現方式突出了瑙曼眾多影像中可見的幽閉恐懼感。瑙曼作為主體演員，經常被限制在狹窄的空間和走廊之中，一遍又一遍地重覆著某些動作或語言。例如在黑白錄像影片《唇音同步》（1969年，57 分鐘）中，攝像機上下顛倒著拍攝瑙曼，鏡頭只對準他的嘴、舌頭、下巴和脖子。他重復說著 「唇語同步 」，與此同時面部動作出現新形態：他的雙下巴看起來像鼻子，然後看似變為一張垂直但沒有眼睛的臉。這些重覆的語句和面部動作，讓影像的節奏有些催眠。有時，瑙曼的嘴唇動作和觀眾聽到的話語並不同步，這有點讓人迷惑——同時也提出新的難題：瑙曼不斷說著 「唇語同步」，但這並不能解釋他在做什麼。

這些早期影像作品確立了瑙曼在文字遊戲方面的實驗。這在他的圖形表達上也能看到，例如一副大型畫作中以三個詞「小提琴 沈默 暴力」組成一個三角形，而後演變為作品「小提琴＋沈默＝暴力」（1981年）。類似的文字組合可以追溯到早期超現實主義寫作，並且與1960年代的詩歌和迷幻藝術現象處於同一時期。他的作品先於藝術家巴巴拉‧克魯格的文字藝術和將廣告牌當作信息的創作，也早於如今無處不在的數碼資訊形式。

展覽的其他部分，包括雕塑在內，著實需要更多作品來豐富其內涵。在擁有挑高天花板的三樓展廳中，主要展出著七個不同版本的影像作品「對立式平衡研究」，以坦白說並不必要的巨大投影展現。在這幾個錄像中，瑙曼以典型的對立式平衡姿勢走路。各種步態經過數碼處理，瑙曼的身體以不同方式一分為二，與自身分離，或朝著相反方向行走。這是藝術家有意的重覆。然而，由於有這麼多相似的錄像，這種重覆早已超越指導意義的界限，變得令人厭煩。從某種意義上說，這正是藝術家的意圖：以測試觀眾注意力的持續時間以及對身體動作所產生變化的投入程度。

不幸的是，大館的觀眾似乎真的受到了考驗。這些差別不大的影像顯得單調乏味，結果，觀眾不太會停留很長時間。在一場與展覽相關的談話中，著名影像藝術家張培力回憶起90年代在紐約首次觀看瑙曼的影像作品時的情景，以及這些作品對他的巨大影響。同樣，香港不同代際的藝術家，從鮑藹倫（活躍於 1980和90年代）、蘇詠寶（21世紀初至今）到鐘正（2020年代），也受到瑙曼獨特的重覆性表演以及描繪空間限制的影像作品的影響。若此次展覽也能呈現這些藝術家的影像和藝術作品也許會更好，一來能增添多樣性和本地語境，二來也能進一步證明如展覽所述——瑙曼是 「藝術家中的藝術家」 。

錄像作品《建造一個好角落（寓言與隱喻）》（1999年 ，59分30秒）被安置在展覽的最末端。策展人解釋說，瑙曼在1980年代搬到了新墨西哥州，那裡是「他的生活與藝術交融之處」。在這個錄像中，觀眾看著瑙曼解釋他在新墨西哥州的牧場裡如何 「建造角落來延長柵欄以安裝大門」 。可惜的是，這個彩色錄像粗糙、畫質欠佳，難以精彩呈現緩慢且帶有沈思性的體力勞作。錄像開頭，瑙曼展示了幾張印有自述文字的幻燈片——這些文字幾乎是擬聲的，匹配著接下來一道道緩慢進行的簡單手工操作：

「沒有一個好角落，就無法建造或維護好一道好柵欄。

必須有一根結實的柱子，才能把鐵絲拉得又緊又直。

這個角落是用9英尺長的好的舊鐵路枕木建造的，埋得很深。橫木是雪松柱子。這裡用的是平滑的鐵絲而非帶刺鐵絲，免得划破我的襯衫和手臂，也免得我爆粗口。北面那對柱子上的雙對角線是用來支撐大門的，你會看到，大門要掛在西邊的外角上。

我從c的例子學到了這種建造角落的方法，但我犯的錯誤是屬於我自己的，與吉恩無關。」

在接下來的一小時裡，瑙曼用一台機械挖掘機和各種工具，緩慢而有條不紊地打造這個為安裝大門而建的柵欄角落。影像結尾是其他人，很可能是他的朋友，就這項工作給他的口頭建議（以文字形式打印呈現）：「你把那根木樁埋入洞裡後，要盡快用撬棍的尖頭打牢。」 那麼，這個錄像看起來純粹是指導性的。真是這樣嗎？

一個城市人，除非是個建築工人，否則會覺得這種造柵欄的過程十分費解。這裡存在著意想不到的轉折，可以概括瑙曼的全部藝術創作：即使是日常實際行為也可能很怪異；有時候，就和藝術一樣怪異。這種對藝術的理解總是讓人耳目一新，但我猜想，觀眾此時早已離場了。

布魯斯‧瑙曼

大館當代美術館

香港

2024年5月15日至8月18日

Exhibition review:

Bruce Nauman: An Artist's Artist

by John Batten

The most satisfying section of the recent Bruce Nauman exhibition at Tai Kwun Contemporary was in their F Hall gallery. Exhibited in this gallery is a solid survey of the artist's videos, accompanied by a small selection of neon installation pieces and drawings. Videos occupying the entire floor space intentionally crossed across each other making a cacophony of sound and flickering video imagery. This presentation worked by emphasizing the feeling of claustrophobia seen in many of Nauman’s videos. As the main performer, Nauman is often confined in spaces and corridors, repeating actions and/or words, over and over. For example, in the black & white video ''Lip Sync'' (1969, 57mins), Nauman is filmed upside-down with the camera focused only on his mouth/tongue, chin and neck. While continuously repeating the words "lip sync", his facial movements take on a new form: his double chin looks like a nose and appears to be an up-right but eyeless face. The rhythm of the video with repeated words and repetitive facial movements is mesmerizing. At times, Nauman’s moving lips and the heard words are out-of-sync, creating a confusing perception for the viewer - and a conundrum: Nauman continues to repeatedly say “lip sync”, when it isn’t!  

Bruce Nauman: Lip Sync, single-channel video (black-and-white, sound, continuous play), 57mins, 1969. Pinault collection, courtesy of Tai Kwun Contemporary (photo: John Batten)

These early videos establish Nauman’s experimentations in word play. It is also seen graphically, for example, in a large drawing in a triangular shape of three words - VIOLINS  SILENCE  VIOLENCE, that evolves to become:  VIOLINS + SILENCE = VIOLENCE (1981). Such combinations of text hark back to early surrealist writing, and are contemporaneous with 1960s poetry and psychedelia. His work anticipates artist Barbara Kruger’s text-art and billboards-as-message and today’s ubiquitous digital messaging.

Bruce Nauman: Perfect Door/Perfect Odor/Perfect Rodo, clear glass neon tubing, wires, suspension frames (three parts), 1972. Pinault collection, courtesy of Tai Kwun Contemporary (photo: John Batten)

The other sections of the show, including sculpture, really needed more artwork to give the exhibition greater substance. Dominating the high-ceilinged third floor gallery were seven different versions of his Contrapposto Studies (2015/2026) videos, screened as – frankly, unnecessary - large projections. In these videos, Nauman walks in a classic modelling posture of ‘in contrapposto.’ We see different versions of the posture, and with digital manipulation Nauman’s body variously splits in two, detaches itself, or appears to walk in an opposite direction from which the body is facing. It is intentionally repetitive. However, having so many similar videos, the repetition crosses the point of instruction to become annoying. In a sense this is the artist's intention: to test the audience''s attention span and engagement with the changes shown in the body's movements.

Bruce Nauman: Contrapostto Studies, I through to VII (III, IV, V, VI, VII), seven-channel video (colour, sound, continuous play), various durations, video still, 2015-2016. Jointly owned by the Pinault collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, courtesy of Tai Kwun Contemporary (photo: John Batten)

Unfortunately, Tai Kwun's audience appeared tested. These only-slightly different videos were tedious; viewers, consequently, appeared not to stay long. In a talk to accompany the exhibition, renowned Chinese video artist Zhang Peili recalled first seeing Nauman’s videos in New York in the 1990s and the strong impact they made on him. Likewise, Hong Kong artists, ranging in generation from Ellen Pao (working in the 1980s and 1990s), Angela Su (2000s to the present) and Mark Chung (working in the 2020s) have also been influenced by Nauman's distinctive repetitive performances and videos depicting confinement. The exhibition might have benefited by also showing videos and artwork by these artists – it would have added diversity and local context and given further proof to the exhibition’s claim that Nauman was an “artist’s artist.”

Bruce Nauman: Setting a Good Corner (Allegory and Metaphor), single-channel video (colour, sound, continuous play), 59mins 30secs, 1999. Pinault collection, courtesy of Tai Kwun Contemporary (photo: John Batten)

Neumann’s video Setting a Good Corner (Allegory & Metaphor) (1999, 59min30sec) was placed at the very end of the exhibition. The curators explain that Nauman moved to New Mexico in the 1980s and it is where “his life and art fused.” In this video, the audience watches Nauman, as he explains, "building a corner to stretch a fence to hang a gate" on his New Mexico ranch. It is unfortunately a grainy, poor-quality, colour video, which detracts from an excellent depiction of slow, contemplative, physical work. At the start of the video Nauman shows a few printed slides in his own words – these are almost onomatopoeic, matching the slow sequence of simple manual actions we will see:  

"A good fence can't be built or maintained without a good corner.

You have to have a good post to stretch your wire tight and true.

This corner is built with good used railroad ties, 9' long and set deep. The cross pieces are cedar posts. Smooth rather than barbed wire is used here to avoid tearing up my shirt and arms and causing bad language to occur. The double diagonal on the north pair of posts is to support the gate to be hung off the outside corner to the west as you will see.

I learned this way of building a corner from the example of Gene Thornton, but my mistakes are my own, not Gene’s.”

Over the next hour Nauman, using a mechanical digger and various tools, slowly and methodically builds this corner of a fence, to hang a gate on. At the end of the video is verbal advice (printed as text) from others, his friends most probably, about the job he has done: “…After you drop that post in the hole start tamping soon enough with the sharp end of the bar….” The video comes across, then, as purely instructional. Or, does it?

A city dweller – unless a builder themselves - would find the construction of this fence incomprehensible. Therein lies a twist, and summarizes Nauman’s entire artistic output: even daily real actions can be odd; as odd, sometimes, as art. That is always a refreshing understanding – but, I suspect the audience had already left.

Bruce Nauman: An Artist''s Artist

Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong

15 May to 18 August 2024