leave the land alone

Bruce Nauman is an internationally recognized artist, who represented the U.S. at the Venice Biennale this year and was furthermore presented with the prestigious Golden Lion award. He has been a presence in the art world since the 1960s, and has been very influential in sculpture and minimalist video.

Nauman works in a variety of mediums, but his signature pieces are generally executed in neon lighting. He often uses text in his work.


On this past Saturday, September 12, Nauman finally executed a sculpture that he conceived in the late 1960s. Leave the Land Alone 1969/2009 is a commentary on the use of natural resources, but even more than that, a call to action - or inaction, as the case may be. The execution consisted of several planes which flew above the Pasadena, CA area and spelled out the words 'LEAVE THE LAND ALONE' in puffs of smoke. The planes retraced the original path a number of times throughout the execution.


The associations that I immediately make are those of pollution and smoke in the air, and the idea that pollution 'disappears' into the atmosphere and thus out of the minds of many. The dots of smoke are digital looking in a way, and remind me of those ticker signs. Even more so I think of the idea of fleeting support for a cause, and the possibility that if you do not understand the message then the entire event make seem confusing and unsettling. Apparently, some spectators even mistook the event for a protest set by a religious organization against intervening in the CA forest fires.

The sky that day made for a beautiful backdrop, and I like the combination of the playful puffs and the assertive message.