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Can you hear what it is yet?

Here are a few snaps of the Raw Materials exhibition currently on display in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern.

The Turbine Hall seen from the upper balcony; people milling around, some standing still, others blurred with motion (black and white image) The Turbine Hall seem from ant's-eye perspective; a woman in an orange coat is blurred with motion as she walks down the hall; people are sitting on the floor at the far end (colour image) Looking diagonally across the Turbine Hall from the lower-right corner

Being an “aural collage” — strategically-placed speakers belt out various spoken texts — it’s quite hard to capture its essence visually, so you’re going to have to either try and visit it yourselves or make do with the virtual version if the following blurb doesn’t make your eyes roll right out of their sockets with its unashamed pretentiousness:

Language has always played a central role in Bruce Nauman’s work, providing him with a means of examining how human beings exist in the world, how they communicate or fail to communicate. For Raw Materials, he has selected 22 spoken texts taken from existing works to create an aural collage in the Turbine Hall. Removed from their original context, the individual texts and voices become almost abstract elements, taking on new meanings as they are rearranged as part of a single work.

Raw Materials also draws on Nauman’s fascination with space, and the ways it can alter our behaviours and self-awareness. The Turbine Hall has been organised so that visitors encounter “bands of sound” that run in strips across its width. No other physical changes have been made to the space. Sound becomes a sculptural material in itself, one that orchestrates and measures its surroundings.

The Turbine Hall is filled with voices, some clearly audible, others indistinct, which merge with new, “found” sound from the voices of the visitors. In Raw Materials, Nauman has transformed this cavernous space into a metaphor for the world, echoing to the endless sounds of jokes, poems, pleas, greetings, statements and propositions.

In: Art

2004 / 12 / 30 – 11:13

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Comments

#1

Jann | 2004 / 12 / 31 – 17:52

Who said modern art’s a pile of steaming wank, eh?

Not me, no sir…

Have a great New Year’s eve, dude!

(although not exclusively new year’s eve. Try and spread it out over a while longer, maybe have a nice meal Sunday night. Who knows. Look it’s just a suggestion ok, I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life or anything…)

#2

Vicky | 2005 / 01 / 04 – 17:51

I saw (listened) to the Nauman exhibition last weekend, too. Not really my thing either…

 

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