© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: ONUK
- Artist/s
- Bruce Nauman
- Title
- Raw Material - BRRR
- Year
- 1990
- Category
- Video
- Installation
- Format
- Video Installation
- Material / Technique
- two-channel video, two-channel audio installation ; 2 monitors, 1 projector, 2 videotapes, 2 videotape recorders
- Dimensions / Duration
- ca. 360 x 500 x 760 cm, installation dimensions variable
- Collection
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
- Description
- The human being on the edge of humanity, disfigured by the childish stupidity of his actions - the human being who is no longer capable of articulating words and who, instead of language, snorts a meaningless "BRRR" between his lips, opposes the classical aesthetics of the perfect human form. It is a theme of the 20th century to unmask humanity and humanism and to let "inhumanity" emerge from the beautiful facades of the image of God. Since Kafka and Samuel Beckett, since Expressionism, Dada and Surrealism, we have been confronted with an image of man that insisted on the existence of the sub-human and animal man, on the fateless and senseless human being. The image of man as a disfigured human being has become virulent since Goya.
Bruce Nauman has continued this criticism of the harmonious image of man, which has now lasted for two centuries, and transferred it to the new art genre of video. In the new medium of moving images, this criticism takes on unexpectedly direct traits: The almost unbearable obtrusiveness of the childishly stupid human being becomes a strange composition of two monitors confronted with each other and a large-format projection, the "monumental" mural, which is underscored by the acoustics of the senseless "BRRR". Never has the image of man been more aggressively and relentlessly isolated to the point of total disfigurement and ridiculousness. As a final consequence, the idea arises that whatever articulation people may produce is nothing more than a "BRRR".
Author
Heinrich
Images
Bruce Nauman, »Raw Material - BRRR«, 1990, two-channel video, two-channel audio installation ; 2 monitors, 1 projector, 2 videotapes, 2 videotape recorders, ca. 360 x 500 x 760 cm, installation dimensions variable, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: ONUK