‘Mental Pressure’ (2009) by Yasi Ghanbari
Edited copy of Bruce Nauman’s ‘Body Pressure’.
Tag Archives: bruce nauman
Bruce Nauman
‘Body Pressure’, a 1974 performance piece by Bruce Nauman.
The performer is instructed (through a poster hung on the wall) to press himself against the wall in various positions. The poster is also a free edition.
The text from this poster is below.
Body Pressure
Press as much of the front surface of
your body (palms in or out, left or right cheek)
against the wall as possible.
Press very hard and concentrate.
Form an image of yourself (suppose you
had just stepped forward) on the
opposite side of the wall pressing
back against the wall very hard.
Press very hard and concentrate on the image pressing very hard.
(the image of pressing very hard)
press your front surface and back surface
toward each other and begin to ignore or
block the thickness of the wall. (remove
the wall)
Think how various parts of your body
press against the wall; which parts
touch and which do not.
Consider the parts of your back which
press against the wall; press hard and
feel how the front and back of your
body press together.
Concentrate on the tension in the muscles,
pain where bones meet, fleshy deformations that occur under pressure; consider
body hair, perspiration, odors (smells).
This may become a very erotic exercise.
Hennesy Youngman
Talking about creative blocks… Hennesy Youngman on Bruce Nauman.
If you need to know more about Post-structuralism, click to see Hennesy explain it.
Peter Coffin
Peter Coffin, ‘Untitled (Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes mystic truths)’ (2006)
Pierre Bismuth
‘In prevention of technical malfunction (unplugged Bruce NAUMAN video work)’ (2003) by Pierre Bismuth.
“In prevention of technical malfunction (unplugged Bruce NAUMAN video work)” is a humorous reference to a situation with which every exhibitions visitor is familiar: videos that can not be seen because of technical problems. All that can be seen here is the presentation medium, namely, the monitors. According to Bismuth, the work that should be running on these monitors is “Good Boy, Bad Boy” by the famous American artist Bruce Nauman. Instead, the viewers have to call it up in their mind’s eye, or imagine something themselves based on the title. We, as recipients are thus challenged to a very high degree to become actively, creatively involved.
Barbara Visser
‘Mystic Truth (calling Bruce)’ (2007) by Barbara Visser.
Framed page from the 1991 telephone book of New Mexico, featuring the telephone number of artist Bruce Nauman.
