Product Description

Before spider holes made their media debut, there was Bruce Naumanís spectacular 1972-74 installation Audio-Video Underground Chamber. Its single concrete vault, with dimensions close to those of the human body, is buried--like a coffin--one and a half meters deep. Integrated into the space are a lamp, a camera and a microphone, which transmit image and sound to a gallery. The actual existence of the buried cabin is concretized only in the viewersí imagination by means of the live broadcast and two of Naumanís explanatory, blueprint drawings. Image and sound call up associations with the psychic and existential borderline areas around which Naumanís art often revolves, with feelings of isolation and claustrophobia, experiences of loss of communication and of orientation, and traumas such as that of being buried alive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1988830 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-01
• Released on: 2006-04-01
• Original language: English, German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Review

"Providing a varied and extensive collection of texts by and about Nauman's work, this anthology opens many doors into reading the layers upon layers of this artist's ironic tragi-comedies... With its focus on Nauman from so many perspectives and its concentration on his performance and new media aspects, this book provides meaningful and extensive resources for both admirers and scholars... In the end, it sets a bountiful theoretical, historical, aesthetic, ethical, and critical context for responding to Nauman's productions." -- Brian Bergen-Aurand, Rain Taxi

Language Notes
Text: French

From the Publisher
"Bruce Nauman's art is about heightened awareness, awareness of spaces we usually don't notice (the one under the chair, out of which he made a sculpture) and sounds we don't listen for (the one in the coffin), awareness of emotions we suppress or dread . . . It's hard to feel indifferent to work like his."—Michael Kimmelman, New York Times

Customer Reviews

I expected prictures, instead the book is 99% interviews
Bruce Nauman is the most amazing artist I have ever seen.
I was not much into moder art, until I saw Clown Torture and From Hand to Mouth at the Tate Modern in London.
Since then I am a looking for his work whetherever I can find it.

I felt a bit let down by this book because I expected reproductions of his work instead it is almost exclusively made up by interviews with him or short articles written by him. There might be 10 pages of reproduction in the whole book. Some of his neon work.

In particular there is no reproduction of Clown Torture in the whole book, inspite of the fact that the head of the clown is on the cover.

I think the book could be great if you are a scolar, or (for wathever reason) want to read what he says about his work, but it is not very good if you want to see reproductions.