Milwaukee Art Museum Sends A Message Through "elusive Signs"

[Erik Sine]

By Heather Leszczewicz

Neon lights are all about conveying messages -- a store is open, cold beer is served here. The Milwaukee Art Museum's newest exhibit, "Elusive Signs: Bruce Nauman Works with Light," uses neon to tell a different sort of message.

"He deals with the frustration of the human condition," says MAM's Chief Curator Joseph Ketner II in a lecture about the exhibit. "His art is about ideas."

According to MAM Director, David Gordon, this is the first neon exhibit at MAM.

This exhibit also marks a first for Nauman, himself.

"This is the first exhibit in the town where he grew up," Ketner says. He also says that there was just something right about bringing the exhibit to MAM.

Something a bit more shocking to the public could be the fact that all the works in the exhibit are refabrications.

"No works of art were touched by the artist," says Ketner. "(Nauman) came up with the idea and gave it to a fabricator. The message is in the sign, not who made the sign."

Nauman's message is pretty clear by the looks of "Elusive Signs."

"He deals with these very big issues of life," Ketner says.

Naumann was inspired to make pieces of art from light by a beer sign that was hanging outside of his studio. He elaborated on the simplicity of that one sign to create the work featured in the MAM exhibit.

"A sign shouts at you and makes you begin to think," Ketner says. "As the light dances across the retina, it leaves an indelible impression."

The entire exhibit may be all about light, but Ketner says that Nauman isn't defined by a single medium; this show is just a sample of his work.

"Light is an immaterial form. It's an elusive form, you can't grab it. It's not physical," Ketner says. "It's aggressive, but seductive."

There are 15 pieces in the exhibit all dealing with light, but the different genres of lighted signs -- language, figures and installations -- make up different sections within the gallery.

The language section is first in the gallery. Many of the pieces are a play on words, like his "Run from Fear, Fun from Rear" piece. It's a meeting of the serious and the humorous.

Ketner says there's always a sense of humor in Nauman's work. He can be an irreverent guy, but he does have a poignant message.

The message is loud and clear in one of his most striking and large pieces, "One Hundred Live and Die." It features one hundred pairings of ideas or actions with either the words "live" or "die." The ideas can be simple like "Young and Die Young and Live" or as thought-provoking as "Speak and Die Speak and Live."

"(It's) the most ambitious piece," Ketner says. "(It's the) core facts of existence: You live and you die. It's humorous, sometimes vulgar. Some make sense, some don't. It's a blaze of confusion much like life. So much is going on and it's hard to go through."

The two installations of the exhibits are next. There is one room, "Helman Gallery Parallelogram," and a tight corridor, "Corridor with Mirror and White Lights." Both are bathed in fluorescent lights which illuminate every crevice and space in the area. The installations provide a new way of perceiving an area.

Finally, there's Nauman's neon moving figures. There's the "Mean Clowns Welcome," which portrays clowns slapping and being cruel to one another. "Hanged Man" is a take-off from the well-known children's word game, but Nauman created the piece as a political statement as well.

"The figures and words all convey the same message," Ketner says. All the pieces could be considered a cry of outrage against the human condition.

Ketner says that the way he gets the message across is provacative in nature, but all he wants the public to do is "think, think, think."

"Elusive Signs: Bruce Nauman Works with Light" runs from Jan. 28 - April 9 in the Baker/Rowland Exhibition Galleries. Tickets for the exhibit are $14 adults, $12 seniors, $10 students, children 12 and under free. Call (414) 224-3200. MAM's Web site is http://mam.org