(excerpt)
“Art Make-Up”, 1967, Video, 10 minutes
Nauman covers himself in white, pink, green, and black make-up on a 42-minute loop. This intersects his interest in film and the use of his body that is often apparent in his other works. Through painting himself he begins to look like a film negative, which is a play on the film medium. The act of covering himself in this way while being filmed also addresses issues of being watched and surveillance. We are watching him, and even though he himself did the filming, there is something strangely private about this piece as he covers up his own body.
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“The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths”, 1967, neon and clear glass tubing suspension supports
Using a medium traditionally used in commercial signs, Nauman has created a piece that implies his own authority as a communicator. As this medium normally used every day to sell the public a product, the viewer is made to question what Nauman is “selling”. He is effectively selling an idea – his idea, specifically. His role as a communicator and one who is “revealing mystic truths” is explored frequently in his art as he uses language (written and spoken) as a way to present a message.
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“Wall-Floor Positions”, 1968, Video, 1 hour
Once again using his body as his primary tool, in this piece Nauman acts out as many positions he can think of with the wall and floor. He is exploring how the body can interact with a space.
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http://ubu.com/film/nauman_contra.html
“Walk with Contrapposto”, 1968, Video, 60 minutes
For this piece, Nauman built a long corridor in his studio and pointed a camera down it. He then filmed himself walking up and down this corridor for an hour, imitating the classical “contrapposto” pose of the Renaissance. This puts that classical and iconic pose into a very non-classical, contemporary medium and context, and it really calls attention to the absurdity and unreality of such a pose. In this piece he employs his usual mischievous style that can further be seen in his later works “Self Portrait as Fountain” and “Henry Moore Bound to Fail” of the 1970s. He is further exploring the language of his own body as a communicative tool, and establishing himself as a mischievous dissenter.