Bruce Nauman

Video: Bruce Nauman's 'Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square' (1967-68)

While talking to Rory about the performance i thought of doing in the Metal at the start which consisted of me walking the perimeter of the square in the middle of the room, he has introduced me to this artist who has made a similar piece. However there are some differences between us. Bruce Nauman made the grid that he followed using masking tape, however my idea was to interact with the shape found in the building. Working with the history of the lines and marks present. 

Similar to Bruce Nauman i am interested in circularity and repetition of movement as well as the body awareness. Nauman is more concerned with the movements and tension made by the movements, compared to what i am trying to show. I am more concerned with highlighting the lines present, being the highlighter that makes the lines/marks noticeable by me interacting with them using movement in an exploratory manner. A subtle performance which requires the audience to be aware of it as it can be easily missed. 

" Error, fatigue, etc. all become factors, and they serve to build suspense, adding an internal logic to the configuration of the film. Thus, the action of walking in an exaggerated manner gains a heightened sense of importance as it is the only anchor, the only sense of motion within the work."  http://www.notcoming.com/reviews/walkingsquare/ 

In a way i think Naumans performance is more concerned with the movement and circularity rather than with the square itself compared to mine, where i place a lot of importance into it and just use my body to highlight it. In a way Naumans using the square as a guideline and i work with the square found. For Nauman the art is in the process and not the object.

"Nauman has stated that the proper way of exhibiting this film is to endlessly loop it, again drawing back to his predilection for the concepts of circularity and repetition. "  http://www.notcoming.com/reviews/walkingsquare/ 

Compared to Nauman for me the performance is the actual work and not the video of it. I consider the video as a way of documenting the piece to look at it myself. A way of documenting and looking at myself from the others point of view. The piece itself is the performance for people to either notice it or not.

My performance link 



~Ev