Bruce Nauman

No, No, New Museum

Bruce Nauman’s No, No, New Museum (1987) takes its name from New York’s New Museum, where it was originally presented in 1987. Belonging to Nauman’s Clown Torture video series, No, No, New Museum records a clown throwing a tantrum. In a stark white room, an actor dressedas a jester tensely grasps a jingling marotte (a type of puppet) while angrily jumping in place and shouting “No! No! No!” The jester’s erratic behaviorand loud screaming are intended to provoke discomfort. Nauman subverts associations of clowns as playful and entertaining. Instead, the figurereveals how a cheerful exterior may mask feelings of anxiety, embarrassment, and irrationality that humans universally share and attempt to conceal.Nauman is also interested in how repetition can strip language of its meaning, transforming it into an abstract auditory pattern. “Where language starts to break down,” Nauman says, “is the same edge where poetry or art occurs.”