Ðrawn αssociation

Down the stairs in Dia:Beacon, I’m treading the cement caverns of this ex-soup factory with a little trepidation. The minimal lines of the gallery’s architectural fit-out, and the lifts are somewhat reassuring of a presence of order and civil stability… but It’s dark down here and there’s a strange light ahead that glows in varying hues.

Seconds later I am standing in front of the works of Bruce Nauman. My mood on entering is greeted with his first work – a neon line; the silhouette of a hanging man in his last hours of agony, or ecstasy… actually both.

And what’s with the green lights? They are a cross section in segmented contours of the side of the artist’s body.
I’m entranced by the video installation Mapping the Studio. and not least because the white lights of cat and mice eyes in the dark world of the moving images are again referencing the implicit energy in life amidst disarray, decay and banality.  Ðα