Natalie Lam
Cole Wilson
Core 2 Seminar: Form and Innovation
25 February 2019
The Mechanism of Discipline at the Bruce Nauman Exhibition
Upon entering MOMA PS1, visitors are greeted by an open space establishing Bruce Nauman’s exhibition, a body of work that has taken residence within the museum. Nauman’s works are dispersed among the spaces of institution and the viewer is guided towards individual rooms through the exploration of personal narrative and artistic investigation. Amidst various pieces, Nauman employs common themes of entrapment and constraint, undeniably and progressively instilling a sense of uneasiness as one treads the corridors of the museum.
Once equipped with a newfound ability to discern the museum apparatus and technologies applied to its individual subjects, I cannot help but to notice and consider the institutional strategies in place. Nauman’s work, the visitors, and the museum employees are all participants of the institution with a respective role that one must assume. The totality of one’s experience with the Bruce Nauman exhibition is achieved not only through the work itself but is simultaneously affected by the museum’s curatorial arrangement in conjunction to the space in which it resides.
MOMA PS1, like many other renowned institutions is quite adept at concealing certain issues surrounding discipline, knowledge, and power that extend beyond the walls of the institution itself. There are several pieces within the exhibition that subliminally motivate a probing of the subject. Double Steel Cage Piece, in particular, though not overtly political evokes a sense of visceral state sanctioned violence through one’s participatory experience of confinement and peril. Before delving into the greater power dynamics at work, one must come to recognize and interpret the artwork itself. Double Steel Cage Piece is described as two steel cages, one situated within the other, slightly larger cage. This work is called to be activated when the individual enters through the small door and traverses along the narrow passage separating the two cages. Nauman’s intention with this piece albeit claustrophobia inducing, demands the viewers and participant to examine the relationship between space and the human body. The narrow, restricted passage leaves you no option but to shuffle sideways, arms parallel to the steel cage and head turned to one side, only to discover that the inner cage is sealed and you must endure the length of the rectangular margin, forging a rather unpleasant and frustrating experience. The participant must walk the entire perimeter of the passing, every movement and each step of the journey exposed like a spectacle to the audience.
Double Steel Cage Piece sits in the center of an enclosed space, shared with no other piece. The sounds from Nauman’s work displayed in the adjacent room is loud enough to be heard, and in spite of its setting, the piece continues to hold a relationship with the work preceding and still to follow. The room is relatively small and can easily be mistaken as a brief transition from one larger space consisting of assorted artworks to the next. Upon entering, Double Steel Cage Piece declares itself as an imposing an uninviting structure. The only indication for active participation is a small door facing the pathway of the viewers, open slightly ajar, coupled with a museum attendant closely the guarding the work. From my observation of this piece, there is typically an exchange that occurs between the visitor and the museum attendant by which the visitor briefly meets the eye of the employee inquiring of the entrance into the cage, followed by the attendant’s slight nod and opening the door further to announce an individual entry.
The question of discipline is at work here. The museum attendant holds power over the visitors through knowledge of the artist’s intention of the artwork. He places himself not in close proximity to the piece itself, but stands apart from the majority of visitors that enter from the room to his left. From there, he is able to observe. One is often met with uncertainty in the unknowing of circumstances and expected intention. We, as the subject of a visitor, are in the absence of knowledge. Until given the affirmative by the museum attendant, there is a certain behaviour that we must demonstrate in displaying civilized respect to the artwork. Even then, the museum attendant moves forward to open the door as the visitor begins to step inside the piece. The visitor rarely opens it himself. There is no thrusting oneself into the narrow space, but generally a hesitant two steps and the face of concentration as the participant begins to traverse along the tight passage. The activation of the work catches the attention of a larger mass and the piece itself is transformed as Double Steel Cage Piece becomes a performative experience and spectacle, whereby the individual is subject to the gaze of fellow museum visitors. All the while, the museum attendant stands against the wall to watch the visitors watch the performance unfold to ensure that the individual inside the cage behaves properly and the viewers remain diligent to the behavior expected by the institution. The case of surveillance is made doubly conscious as the participant becomes increasingly aware of the viewers that follow every move. We are conditioned to adopt a certain behaviour in avoiding embarrassment and unease. The participant begins to move hastily to reach the door, conscious and unsettled by watching eyes, simultaneously establishing the role as a mechanism for discipline.
Double Steel Cage Piece among Nauman’s other work emphasizes the manifestation of discipline, knowledge, and power employed within the museum apparatus. I am particularly impressed with the piece in its ability to heighten one’s typical experience of being surveilled, scrutinized, and examined twofold; an experience that is ordinarily suppressed when walking down corridors in the presence of beautiful artworks.
