Week 09
Critique Excercise
Bruce Nauman:
Swastika/Prayer Wheel, 1986
Critique:
The piece of work I am going to critique for
this module is called, “Swastika/Prayer Wheel” created in 1986 by Bruce Nauman.
There is actually very little information about this piece of work, it seems
that Bruce Nauman is more celebrated for his neon and sculpture works. So it’s
quite difficult for me to establish the context that this piece was made in and
where Bruce was in his life in 1986. The use of skin colour has the result of
there not being any real dark areas within this piece. The line work is sketchy
but still conveys the shapes
and size of the
arms with outlines,
they are still representational
of human proportions,
thus, having a naturalistic
form. This work was created using water colour and pencils on paper. The piece
is representative of Hindu believes, although, the fact the arms are giving the
middle finger suggests a care free nature to this and could symbolize Bruce saying,
“It doesn’t matter what religion someone is.” This could be further backed up
with the concept of
using a Hindu version of the swastika which is the opposite of the Nazi
swastika, and they were against every religion except their own. That makes
this piece even more powerful.
There is a repetition of arms going in the same
direction, this creates a nice balance to the piece and makes for a nice composition. The work has
been built up using a skin colour
for the arms but he has left the center white to convey light which is
interesting, that means instead of using white to add light he has literally
planned it out so he leave the lightest areas blank add a great contrast to the overall value. There is a good unity to this piece, the
four arms emerge from the middle of the canvas and all uniformly bend in the
same direction to split up the canvas into even, empty spaces. The main theme here is the attitude
towards those who don’t accept another’s religious beliefs. This is done
through the middle finger extending from this Hindu swastika. There is a rhythm with the scale as
well, all the arms are close in scale and proportions, like a pattern of arms that could be repeated for
eternity. Not only do the arms follow the same path, they also have a repeated interval between each
other which further adds to the repeating pattern.
This piece makes me feel calm and frustrated at
the same time because of the fact that the message I have taken from it
shouldn’t be a problem at all and yet it is. The quality of this piece is a
mature one, there is an adult theme and it is represented in an honest and
truthful way.
I would say that this piece is a success, the
theme is the strongest part of this, the most striking part is the four arms in
a swastika while doing the middle finger, this alone made me want to question
the meaning behind it. This piece is a statement against those who are racist.
Its saying that it doesn’t matter what someone’s religion is. Good criteria for
other people to judge this work is on the theme, the balance of the piece, pattern
and lastly harmony,
particularly of the four arms moving in unison around the same pivot point.
This piece is post-modern
in the sense that someone else could see this piece and come away with a
totally different interpretation.
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