bruce nauman American Sculptor know also for his environments, films and videotapes.

ABOUT Nauman. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman’s departure into even more non-traditional media made him a pioneer in post modern art. Early in his career Nauman abandoned painting in favour of sculpture, performance, installation, film, video, photography and neon, amongst other activities. His restless intellect drives a continual experimentation and re-invention in his artistic practice. This in turn forces the viewer to explore their own presence and self-awareness when confronting his work which in all its declaration has a powerful physical quality. Uses unconventional sculpting materials such as fibre glass, neon tubing and Styrofoam. He made sculptures based on the backs of objects all moulded from parts of his own body. “I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when its enough and you can leave it alone.”

Tom Friedman

about Friedman Friedman makes extraordinary works that explores ideas of perception, logic, and possibility. He utilises mundane materials such as; toilet paper, laundry detergent, styrofoam cups and drinking straws. He manipulates through varied, painstakingly intricate processes that border of obsessive, Friedman has created a whimsical, miscellaneous body of work since the early 1990s. In 1992 he sharpened an entire pencil into a single unbroken spiral shaving. The artist also famously exhibited a tiny ball of his own feces on a white pedestal (1992). In recent works like Ogre (2008) and Green Demon (2008), Friedman created sculptures of otherworldly figures from such everyday materials as paper and insulation foam. “My work tends towards this very repetitive labor process for some reason, yet it is not really about that.”

Differences Nauman tended to experiment more with new materials such as neon tubing, however Friedman looks at readily available house hold materials to create sculptures, such as toothpicks and aspirin tablets. When looking at Nauman’s work there’s a distinctive aesthetic and style as the neon tubing seems to be a re-occurring material. Friedman used such a wide range of materials it’s difficult to find a definitive style.

Both artists seem to have quite an understated, minimal feel to their work They both primarily work with sculpture The link between the two artist lies in their emphasis on process and exploration of material as opposed to the finished work itself. Similarities

A self-portrait made from sugar cube Tom Friedman Untitled, 1999 Sugar cubes A self-portrait made from sugar cube Bruce Nauman ‘Hanging heads’ wax and wire, 1989

They both explored the concept of using the body as a standard of measurement, an example of this would be Nauman’s ‘Neon Templates of the Left Half of My Body Taken at Ten-Inch Intervals’(1966) and Friedman’s sculpture titled ‘My Foot’ (1991) which is a ruler made out of the dimensions of his own foot.

Quotes I don't like to think about being an influence, its embarrassing Since the mid 1960s Bruce Nauman has been one of the most highly respected and influential figures in contemporary art. He is noted for his exploratory way of working and his search for self-knowledge, stemming in part from his early university studies in mathematics and physics. His work combines bodily consciousness, physical and mental activity, linguistic manipulation and humour and focuses on perception, spatial relationships, human psychology and issues of life and death.

o the work when one considers the meaning of the colloquial phrase "my foot!" Friedman's works also explore the relationship between mundane occurrences and large natural forces. Dustball (1994) has the look of a planet viewed from afar while being, quite literally, "down to earth." Other works make oblique reference to precedents from the conceptual tradition to which Friedman belongs. One untitled 1994 photograph of a man lying against a ceiling plays off Bruce Nauman's 1973 video Tony Sinking into the Floor, Face Up and Face Down (currently on view through May 23 in the Museum's BRUCE NAUMAN exhibition). While Nauman's work is marked by pronounced anguish, Friedman's is a mock Ascension that invokes a classical motif with deadpan surrealism.