Bruce Nauman

There’s a compelling sense of history in the restaging of Bruce Nauman’s “Audio/Video Piece for London, Ontario,” curated by Christopher Régimbal and recently exhibited at London’s Forest City Gallery. Originally shown in London in 1970 for the 20/20 Gallery—largely considered Canada’s first artist-run centre and FCG’s parent gallery—“Audio/Video Piece for London, Ontario” was developed at the invitation of board member and artist Greg Curnoe, who had written to Leo Castelli in the summer of 1969 asking if Nauman would be interested in showing at 20/20. Since its first showing, “Audio/Video Piece for London, Ontario” has been included in several major surveys of Nauman’s work, including “Topological Gardens” at the 2009 Venice Biennale, where Nauman—now considered one of the world’s most influential living artists—walked away with the Golden Lion.

Roughly speaking, “Audio/Video Piece for London, Ontario” contains the same elements as it did 41 years ago. On the floor against the wall of an empty gallery sits a tv. Adjacent to the tv, an empty chair. On the screen of the tv, the broadcast of a live feed from a camera tipped on its side to film the interior wall of a closed-off space located directly behind the chair. From within the closed space, behind the wall, the sound—a rhythmic, lulling, looping hum—of Nauman slapping himself with the palms and the back of his hands.

At Forest City Gallery, Régimbal kept the original schematics of the exhibition—as detailed by Nauman in his original instructions—but altered the materials to the current day to avoid any sentimentalism or nostalgia. The television, for example, is not vintage. Nor is the chair. But the wall follows the exact same dimensions. And the sound of Nauman slapping his hands against his body is the original recording he made with Robert Fones and Greg Curnoe when Nauman visited London in 1970.

“Audio/Video Piece for London, Ontario” is important in that it predates a series of live video and architectural installations that Nauman exhibited between 1970 and 1974, including Corridor Installation (Nick Wilder Installation), 1970, Live/Taped Corridor, 1970, Four Corner Piece, 1971, Video Surveillance Piece (Public Room, Private), 1972, and Audio-Video Underground Chamber, 1974.

Of these, Régimbal considers the piece that “Audio/Video Piece for London, Ontario” mirrors most closely is Audio-Video Underground Chamber, which was commissioned from Nauman in 1972. For this piece, Nauman buried a coffin-sized chamber containing a video camera and a microphone, feeding the signal of the buried chamber to the nearby Wide White Space. Régimbal comments in his notes about the show that “this piece, like Live/Taped Corridor and Audio/Video Piece for London, Ontario, employs simple surveillance technology and basic architectural forms to explore complex themes of antagonism, claustrophobia, and bodily control.”

While it reflects contemporary issues such as surveillance and technology, perhaps what is most dynamic about Audio/Video Piece for London, Ontario is the sound element of the exhibition. Nauman’s tape loop of his hands slapping himself is both rhythmic and resonant, attuned to another unseen world of the body and the soul. Anticipating Vito Acconci’s Seedbed, 1972, in its unseen performative aspect, Nauman’s (non)presence in the empty, minimalist room of the exhibition space creates a compelling sense of tension. Was/is he behind the wall?

Régimbal admits that the idea for the exhibition stemmed not just from his own curiosity as a former Londoner and from working at Forest City Gallery, but also out of a curiosity to unveil truths about Nauman’s relationship to Curnoe, who was so famously anti-American. Why, after all, would Curnoe devote his time to organizing an exhibition by such a consummate American artist as Nauman? In light of this conundrum, Régimbal suggests the exhibition provides ways of re-examining artist-run culture and what “regionalism” could possibly mean within a broader international context.

Régimbal’s interest in the story-behind-the-story part of the exhibition is explored in a carefully selected companion display of archival artifacts related to the exhibition. Boasting a veritable who’s who of Canadian art names, the artifacts include original Gallery 20/20 documents as well as an original review of the exhibition by sculptor David Rabinovitch in 20 Cents Magazine. In opposition to Nauman’s minimalist exhibit, these objects offer a detailed historical perspective and counterpoint to the show’s overall conceptual thrust.

Perhaps what is most curious about Audio/Video Piece for London, Ontario is what it suggests about London, Ontario. The camera tipped on its side, trained to its infinite view of the void, is a complex point of view. We never get to see London, Ontario. Now or then. Because, as Nauman’s piece continues to suggest, what we see is just as important as what we don’t see, making this exhibition’s homecoming particularly poetic. ❚

“Bruce Nauman: Audio/Video Piece for London, Ontario” was exhibited at the Forest City Gallery in London, on, from January 7 to February 19, 2011.

Christine Walde is a writer living and working in London, Ontario.