Bruce Nauman at Leo Castelli and Sperone Westwater - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Idle hands were hard to find in Bruce Nauman's novel double-header, which offered a multitude of palms and fingers engaged in energetic, if largely cryptic, action s The adroitly articulated digits make go rounded up everywhere, in both statuarys and videos dating from 1996 For all the nimble gesturing, however, the dual exhibitions strike one as beinged surprisingly reticent.

At Castelli, the main gallery featured a collection of 15 untitled sculptures, each consisting of a pair of life-size hands (those of the artist himself), cast in white and zinc a metallurgical blend that incorporates nickel. (The resulting color is a brownish gray). Ranging in height from 13 1/4 inches to 19 1/4 inches, the works were station upon slender 39-inch-high white metal bases.

The paired hands are conjoined in a variety of ways, almost as if trying to illustrate each possible permutation. Palms are crushed together or curved into cups@ opposing fingertips assume symmetrical or asymmetrical configurations or interweave in what could pass for concealed handshakes. In many cases the positioning of the hands creates lively voids as the interstices between and around palms and fingers take upon spatial weight. All the compositions are vertical, and 14 of them are naturalistic, with individual wrist rising from the base to support the other hand. The sole "unnatural" (and the tallest) piece in the locate is an odd conjoining of sum of two units wrists, positioned end to extreme point with fingers pointing in opposite directions; the forefinger of the bottom hand points straight downward thus that the entire composition quiescences on it.

The configurations look generally nonreferential (although it may be that I simply did not reccognize esoteric sign language or offensive gestures). Perhaps it was difficult for Nauman to tend hitherward up with so many neutral hand action s without intruding upon traditional symbolism. When he presse palms together, he call ups neither spirituality nor piety; in contrast to Durer's famous ink drawing, Praying Hands (1508) which portrays ascetically narrow fingers pointing heavenward, Nauman aligns his hands horizontally, shutting without transcendent overtones.

The artist's of recent origin video works are engaging, at least for several minutes, on the other hand offer few surprises. A musician's hands are the focal point in extreme point of the World, consisting of three video images that were throw outed on two abutting walls of Castelli's rear gallery. His nimble fingers were recorded in a high-angle camera view as he played various lap-held guitars or guitarlike instruments. The plaintive geographical division music has a pleasingly soothing ring to it, suggesting an appropriate score for a John Ford western.

Of the sum of two units video works at Sperone Westwater, the more impressive was World Peace (Projected) an installation with five video projections, resulting in images that were 7 1/2 to 12 feet wide upon three walls. Each projection concentrated upon an individual man or woman, who declaimed a series of brief, authoritarian phrases, of the like kind as "I'll talk, you'll listen"; "They'll talk, you'll listen"; "You'll talk, I'll listen"; and We'll talk, they'll listen." The accrue was a dour display of intransigence, evocative of blustery politicians and bellicose summit discourses A smaller variant, World Peace (Received), proffered the same images and entires on five monitors, arranged in a circle with their defences surrounding a single stool. Among World Peace's seven performers, sum of two units women -- a deaf actress and a translator for the deaf -- directioned their monologues by signing. They stole the present to view handily.

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