Bruce Nauman's airborne ambitions

Artist Bruce Nauman, fresh off his Golden Lion win at this year's Venice Biennale, has lined up his next local project -- and let's just say that it will take his career to new heights. Literally.

On Sept. 12, between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., Nauman will transform the skies over Pasadena in a project called "Untitled (Leave the Land Alone), 1969/2009." Viewers can expect to see the words "Leave the Land Alone" written in the sky -- with the best viewing spots at La Loma Bridge, Colorado Street Bridge and Brookside Park, according to organizers.

Nauman had apparently planned a similar project in 1969 but shelved it for unknown reasons. Now resurrected 40 years later, the project is being held in conjunction with "Installations Inside/Out" at Pasadena's Armory Center for the Arts, running from Sept. 20 to Dec. 31.

It will mark Nauman's first solo institutional project in the L.A. area since 1994, according to the Armory.

In his lengthy career, Nauman has pioneered the use of text in artwork; this latest effort continues his exploration of the ironic and witty possibilities of words in the visual medium. Of course, there is an environmental angle to the project, but it is intended to provide commentary aimed at the movement known as Land Art or Earth Art.

No word yet on whether Nauman will be in the plane that will perform the skywriting.

-- David Ng

Photo: Artist Bruce Nauman's "Violins, Violence, Silence" (1981-82). Credit: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Comments

[Donald Frazell]

Text is not art, its literature. And when those with absolutely no literary ability, but huge artistic pretence, look to find a well paying career, this is what you get. Academic doodoo. Spell that Nauman. Napoleon complex magnified.

Art is about humanity, nature and god, there is none of these things in Naumans vocabulary, tis all about the glorified individual. With his thoughts being all. Man is A measurer of things, not The measure of All things. And his arrogance knows no bounds. Or much of anthing else. More detritus from the Age of Meism and Excess. You know what to do off that bridge as it passes by.

Art Collegia Delenda Est