Existing comment:
Bruce Nauman
born Fort Wayne, IN 1941
Raw War
1970
neon, glass tubing, wire, transformer, and sequencer
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Gift of Leo Castelli, New York, BMA 1982.148
Like its counterparts in bar and shop windows, Nauman's neon sign begs attention, aiming to engage a public beyond the solitary viewer. Rather than peddling war to the masses, however, it seems to broadcast a state of emergency. The neon's toggling between the words "raw" and "war" mimics the call and response of protest, the work adopting the cadence of civil disobedience |