Bruce Nauman (born
1941) is a contemporary
American artist who works in
neon,
video art, and other unconventional media.
Some of his better-known works include:
- Clown Torture - in separate stacked video screens, a clown screaming "No" repeatedly, a clown telling an annoying child's joke, a clown balancing goldfish bowls, and a clown sitting on a public toilet.
- Vices and Virtues - Atop a laboratory building at University of California San Diego, neon signs seven feet tall, alternating the seven vices and seven virtues: FAITH/LUST, HOPE/ENVY, CHARITY/SLOTH, PRUDENCE/PRIDE, JUSTICE/AVARICE, TEMPERANCE/GLUTTONY, and FORTITUDE/ANGER.
- The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths - a spiraling neon sign with this slogan.
- Setting a Good Corner - looping video of the artist setting a corner fencepost.
- World Peace - five projectors or video players displaying four women and a man each speaking simultaneous monologues about world peace.