Bruce Nauman: The True Artist helps the World by Revealing the Mystic Truths, 1967, Neon & Clear glass tubing suspension supports: 149. 86 x 139.7 x 5.08. 

            If I was working on a piece like this, I know it would take a lot of hours, working night and day and hard labor in fitting and putting the words in place.  It must be very delicate work making the words and lettering, including circling the straight line in the middle.  The art piece is more involved with labor, because it speaks to elitism in art in the materials he using. And it represents the low culture and advertising during his time.  Bruce Nauman set up this piece as a message to art and artist.  He wanted any other artist to believe that they can be artists too and inspire artists to find their own voice or own style.  I believe Nauman’s art is very activist, because it has a message and makes a statement.  This piece is characteristic of Nauman’s early neon work, in a typical tone of dry satire.  I agree with his quote, because anybody could be an artist, if they want to be.  I think this piece is art, because it inspires me and sends a message.     

                          

One Hundred Live and Die, 1984

Neon tubing with clear glass tubing on metal, 118 x 132 ¼ x 21in, Collection Benesse Holdings, Inc. / Benesse House Museum, Naoshima (near Okayama in Japan)

The foundation of Bruce Nauman’s work rigorously questions people's aesthetic and moral values. Since most of his ideas aren’t direct representations of ideas but of abstract thought, I think his installations are labor intensive, but definitely more thought intensive. There are some works of his where the ideas are so grand and abstract, the labor must be heavy too. I believe the labor and thought process increase according to each other in Bruce Nauman’s works. In the work of "Life and Death", a hundred sentences arranged horizontally repeat the process of lightening and extinguishing like the signboard of the airport terminal. These short and direct neon sentences are continually repeated, and hope and despair appear to be evenly matched in the neon light, illuminating the space of the exhibition hall. Nauman’s choice of medium is not specific but instead, he likes to experiment and test out both modern and traditional art making tools to get his message across. There are many definitions to “working” and I think just the development and planning out of his installations should be considered as “artist working in the studio”. No matter what time these values ​​are formed, the time and relevance of Nauman's works will never diminish because he intentionally created a range of concepts challenging different eras and idea bubbles.

This is just giant size of two wooden boards next to each other. There was very narrow space(almost only a person can barely walk) between the two boards .
 I think this artwork perfectly represents the theme 'Disappearing Art'
If you get inside/between the two boards, you are completely blocked from the world. Everything disappeared or you are disappeared.
Obviously, this art work is nothing to do with traditional form as sculpture nor labor-intense. I am sure no one before 20th century ever consider this two giant wooden board as an art. Speaking of labor process, I don't think making(literal way) process itself didn't  take long time but his brain storming process for his intention that people to feel isolation from the world could be much longer than we assume. However, what I think is that he just walked between the two boards,feeling the space he was walking in and the idea suddenly poped up on his mind. 
Bruce Nauman’s Kassel Corridor (1972) 

Bruce Nauman began his career in the mid-1960s, Nauman’s work has retained a fierce radicality throughout the ensuing four decades, even as it has constantly and dramatically transformed its own means and appearance

During the 1980s, when Nauman was in his forties, his work often directly voiced his concern over profound sociopolitical problems. White Anger, Red Danger, Yellow Peril, Black Death, belongs to a group of sculptures that use I-beams and chairs to address the practice of torture, still employed by governments worldwide. "I thought of using a chair that would somehow become the figure," Nauman said, "torturing a chair and hanging it up or strapping it down."for Nauman the work of art does its job by calling attention to issues that may otherwise remain unseen and unspoken.

"If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art. " It shows how passion that he had and I could see his art require a lot of work but i'm sure he would like to do it alone that caused him wants to work entire the time in his studio.

162.6 x 101.6 cm. (64 x 40 in.), Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Marlyand 

When it comes to Nauman’s art, I don’t really feel qualified to make a definitive statement on the amount of labor it took, though I imagine the amount of work that went into it is much greater than one might first assume when looking at it. I certainly don’t feel qualified to make a value judgment regarding its legitimacy as art. But I certainly think I am able to appreciate his penchant for creating spectacle.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t always “get” modern art. I struggle with the fact that without a detailed explanation from the artist themself, I usually don’t comprehend the message behind it. Yet perhaps the disconnect between my interpretation of the art and the artist’s own intentions is one of the fundamental values of art such as Nauman’s. What makes his work “art”, I suppose, is less the technical skill that went into making it (though I’m sure there was much of that) and more the thing that it reveals about is as we observe it. 

Nauman clearly wanted to thwart expectations regarding what we commonly perceive of as art and to challenge us to consider the philosophical difference between the way we perceive something when we see it as random or utilitarian versus when we are told that it is art. It’s almost like a quantum principle in that the act of observing it with an artistic lens alters it’s meaning. 

This particular piece comes with a self-descriptive title, as well as a short explanation written by the curator of the exhibit at the MoMa, without which I probably wouldn’t have been able to interpret its meaning. But that doesn’t mean I would not have perceived it as art. It just means my interpretation of it would have been very different. Even without necessarily considering the implications of calling it art, upon viewing it I immediately began making connections in my own mind to experiences I’d had such as taking photos of people waving around sparklers or glow sticks. From there I began building my own associations, entirely without prompting. These kinds of associations, when considered at length, can begin to build into a more concrete interpretation of a piece of art which is entirely unrelated to the artist’s own intentions, but I think that Nauman would be ok with that. It is the process of experiencing and interpreting the art that requires effort and leads to value, not necessarily the amount of effort that went into actually creating it.

So when it comes to the question of whether Nauman’s work took more or less labor than other art by comparison, I almost feel as though the question is irrelevant - but to try to answer it as best I can, I would say that it is possible that it took less labor in a very literal sense (depending on the particular piece), but the labor that went into the conception and planning of it is possibly even more than it would be for a more traditional work. It is hard to quantify. But ultimately I think the notion that art such as this is less valid than other art because it “probably didn’t take that much effort” is illegitimate, because its value lies precisely in its apparent lack of conventional, obvious effort, and how that challenges the lenses through which we filter art.

Medium: Stereo audio files, speakers, amplifiers, and additional equipment. Dimensions variable

 

I think Nauman put a lot of time in making these pieces of sculpture even though there is not nothing on each panel other than white paper. I can’t determine how much time and effort Nauman needed to finish something like this because the first question that came to my mind when I entered to the room was; “is this art?”. Clearly you don’t see anything special other than white panels hanging on and perfectly aligned. If we compare his art to the traditional art like for example the renaissance, artist take many years to finish one commission and you are able to see the effort by the first gaze. however, Nauman challenge himself by creating something never done before. like for example this sculpture, it is something that you can feel it with your eyes closed. He used sound installation where each row of panel emits a surge of voice reciting the days of the week out of order. Those voices are recorded by men, women and children. The combination of all make it seems like a kind of musical canon. It was interesting by walking through each panel and hearing different voices repeating the days of the week again and again. I disagree with his statement that every piece of art he made in his studio must be art. If you can consider a simple draft is art, then is only art in your eyes. I am not an artist so I don’t know what can be consider as art. However, I am a fashion design student, I don’t think everything I draw has to be made into a real thing. There are more thought and time to do something good. However, I agree with the idea that making art is an activity, but it also need to be a product in my point of view. 

Medium

Steel beams, aluminum, paint, and wire

Dimensions

62 3/4" x 17' 11 1/8" x 16' (159.4 x 546.4 x 487.7 cm)

Credit

Gift of Werner and Elaine Dannheisser

Object number

111.1990.a-f

When I first saw the device, the image come to my mind is the workers sitting on the I-beam, which I saw a similar photo when I visited the Rockefeller Center. This should be a lively construction scenario, very positive or leisurely. But this device has no workers, what instead of is four different color chairs, black, white, red, yellow; these four chairs are not complete chairs, each chair is missing a part, or missing chair legs, or missing chair surface, and they are associated with this I-beam in various ways. This is a very interesting combination, and the missing part of the chair represents some specific unreasonable existence, I think this is what the "Disappearing Acts" about.

One Hundred Live and Die is 118” x 132” x 21” (300 cm x 335 cm x 53 cm) which takes up the majority of any wall. This neon flashing abstract piece of art was constructed in 1984 and gives off a unique perception of life and different ways we can look at it. When I saw this construction, it made me think of how people can look at life in a negative and positive way, from everything we do ends in death to us finding the joy in others and living life to the fullest. The flow of the neon lights changing catches the attention of the audience and makes it a master piece because of the thought that was put behind it. As Bruce Nauman did sketches, he was more drawn to the abstract things in life and wanted to make people think and to tell a story, a story that would be unique to someone viewing this work and seeing it from their point of view in life. One Hundred Live and Die made me realize that no matter what we do we are living In the moment subconsciously, but no matter where we go in life and no matter what we experience we are always headed towards death.   

One Hundred Live and Die, 1984. Neon tubing with clear glass tubing on metal, 118 × 132 1/4 × 21 in. (299.7 × 335.9 × 53.3 cm), Collection Benesse Holdings, Inc. / Benesse House Museum, Naoshima (near Okayama in Japan)

 

I think Bruce Nauman thought deeply about materials and process of his artworks. His work doesn’t require a lot of labor than a conventional sculpture but I think he took more time before he start making his work than actual time of making it. It might be tricky to make algorithm to light the neon signs but I think the conventional sculpture is more labor consuming.

 

This One hundred live and die impressed me. Inevitability and unexpectedness of death can happen to anyone in anytime. The darkness of the death is covered by the bright and colorful neon lights. It reminded me a Korean student who fell at Grand Canyon. I read an article about him a day after I went to the Grand Canyon this January. We were at the same place but he was almost dead (he is almost recovered now) but this can happen to me. Every second somebody dies somewhere on earth and no one knows who is next. I had this horrible thinking from this work. 

Kassel Corridor: Elliptical Space 1972

Painted wall board, wood, and door hardware. 

Bruce Nauman’s process was not one that would be considered to be physically labor intensive. Instead Nauman focused on being able to display conceptual ideas into a physical space and worked out the logistics and materials to have all aspects properly display his ideas. I think that while Nauman’s work in a literal sense took less effort to achieve but manages to match or even surpass the complexity of traditional art in some ways. While I personally don’t agree with Nauman’s statement on what can be considered art, I think it is accurate from his own point of view. His perception of art is in response to his distance from traditional art and his own creations because his art work is a reflection of only one phase of the artistic process since he didn’t partake in the construction of his pieces. Nauman’s Kassel Corridor: Elliptical Space is not considered art solely because Bruce Nauman is an artist who created it in a studio but because it is representative of several ideas. The two rounded walls create a room that can occupy only one person and is locked inside by a key. Nauman planned it with the intention of the occupant doing whatever they wanted with the feeling of privacy in what is a public space, but in reality people are welcome to observe the individual without being able to soil their feeling of privacy because the door is locked. This concept reminds me of society today where true privacy and security is a false sense because of technology and other individuals.