CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/20/2018

Bruce Nauman and lies, catching and being caught

"I was interested in the idea of lying, or not telling the truth," Bruce Nauman is quoted in Disappearing Acts, the catalogue to MoMA’s exceptional current Nauman retrospective. Essayist Jeffrey Weiss traces the etymology of the word "deceive," concluding that "‘the idea of lying’—that is, the concept of deception in Nauman’s work—is partly intrinsic to the work’s realization as object or device. Put differently, Nauman’s sculptural objects possess forms predetermined by functions; in turn, their implementation can be assigned to various types of taking—to holding and withholding, to containment and detainment. Language associates these actions with the state of having been defrauded, deluded or misled. The act of lying is figured by the physical action of catching or having caught." Featured image is Light Trap for Henry Moore, No. 1 (1967).