Walking through the Bruce Nauman exhibit was at times uncomfortable but at the same time intriguing. I found myself wanting to interact with the installation and spending a lot of time in each room. there was so much to see and all very peculiar. f all the exhibits there were two that stuck with me the most: the double steel cage as well as the clown torture room.
The cage wasn’t inviting in any way other than the small door that was ajar leading into a very small enclosed space between two steel cages. I noticed no one was making a move to get inside the cage, and at first I didn’t realize we could go in but I remembered reading about this exhibit earlier and decided to go inside and walk through it. Walking through was uncomfortable and trapping but I realized that it didn’t feel as claustrophobic as I thought it would be. This exhibit definitely embodies Nauman’s exhibit in that it makes the audience feel uncomfortable and slightly on edge, making them think about the concept of space and movement as well as constraint. While you are inside the cage your body is walking horizontally so already you are out of your element. Additionally your vision is filtered through the layers of cages in front of you, distorting you view of the outside, making you feel isolated and uneasy with the outside of the cage pressing up against your body. This feeling of unease is definitely conveyed and reminded me of a set of hallways that came later in the exhibit, some extremely narrow and others dark. I walked through them as well and again I was uneasy and uncomfortable but not to a point of feeling trapped which was what I expected to happen.
The clown torture room was also very interesting. There were multiple screens that were replying short clips of clowns being humiliated and pranked. The room was red and it was full of the screams and uneasiness of the clowns in the videos. It was extremely loud and jarring, and although the clips were gruesome it still felt quite uneasy being in that room.
I believe these two exhibits portrayed Nauman’s purpose in the fact that he wanted his audience to feel out of control and out of their comfort zone.
I agree with your interpretation of the double steel cage in the Bruce Nauman exhibit. The uninviting appearance of the cage represented Nauman’s emotions well. Although I didn’t walk inside the cage, I could tell that it was very uncomfortable. I thought that the double cage emphasized Nauman’s themes of entrapment and constraint. In Nauman’s exhibit, he often tries to make people feel uncomfortable to show how all we know is unstable.
The clown torture room was downright terrifying for me but was also extremely useful in demonstrating Nauman’s views. I think it’s interesting how Nauman chose to convey feelings of uneasiness through the use of clowns and cages.