Bruce Nauman (b. 1941)

In 1966, Bruce Nauman contemplated what it was an artist was supposed to do:
"If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art." Nauman believed art was less about the product and more about the process and used his behavior and activities in the studio as the starting point for a series of films and videos made from 1967-69. He recorded himself performing simple, repetitive activities, each responding to a specific problem in a physically and mentally demanding hour-long time frame.

Over thirty-years later, Setting a Good Corner (Allegory & Metaphor) celebrates Bruce Nauman's fascination and investigation in menial labor involved in the most banal of activities. Set in the artist's much beloved Las Madres Ranch, Nauman works tediously yet consistently to build a corner from which to stretch a fence and hang a gate. As we watch and hear the sounds of the tractor and the chainsaw, we are filled with an intensifying anxiety and silent dread. No longer is Nauman the isolated artist in his studio. What harm could he inflict upon himself and others? These questions and Nauman's quest both become metaphors for the rituals and struggles of human existence.