We’re in the midst of lockdown 2.0 and I can’t help thinking back to the exhibitions I had encountered just before lockdown was announced. Just when things felt like they were starting to go back to this new normal.
This exhibition left a strange effect on me like a bad taste you could still sense, it left me actually bewildered. Not to be dramatic, but I went into the exhibition with low expectations, perhaps it would be slightly interesting. There might be some good photo opportunities. I was oh so wrong. It was ultimately terrifying, Bruce Nauman really does know how to challenge any certainty anyone has about anything and by the end when you exit from the dim lit rooms, the thoughts stay with you and worm their way into your dreams.
The most memorable exhibit in the daunting rooms is a cage. Yes a cage, a human cage. Very happily the sign on it read ‘Sorry for the inconvenience, usually you could go in but sadly because of Covid. This cannot happen.’ I encountered this human cage after speed walking through a room of taped clowns, I could not even try to watch the footage, the actors dressed in clown costumes were too realistic and made my skin crawl. I pierced my eyes down to the floor and very gleefully I looked up, happy I was out of the clown room.
But then I brought my eyes up there was a cage the size of a big living room. I thought I was out of the dark but now there was this. Although I was frightened and there was starting to be a stirring in my stomach I was intrigued with the unsettling air Nauman had created. He comes back round again with the same themes psychological and physical threat, cruelty and humour and delivers. I would recommend this exhibit for everyone, it foremost questions everything which I believe is the key to good art.
