Wooden structure, 2 light bulbs and timer
Tate Collection
Works with images
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ARTIST ROOMS
National Heritage Memorial Fund
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/bruce-nauman-1691" aria-label="More by Bruce Nauman" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Bruce Nauman</a>
Changing Light Corridor with Rooms
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
anxiety
dysfunction
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
interiors
light
lobby
mystery
public and municipal
space
universal concepts
<p><span>Changing Light Corridor with Rooms</span> 1971 can be installed in several ways but always consists of a long, walled corridor, about thirty centimeters wide, from which two side rooms (one rectangular, the other triangular) can be reached half-way down. The darkness of the corridor is interrupted intermittently by harsh, flashing streams of light coming from the side rooms. The flashing occurs at a specified rate: in the rectangular room the lights are on for ten seconds, then off for four seconds; and in the triangular room they are on for seven seconds and off for two.</p>
installation wooden structure 2 light bulbs timer
15 February 2014 – 24 May 2014
2014-05-24
15 February 2014 – 24 May 2014
2014-05-24
2014-02-15
Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library (Preston, UK)
http://www.preston.gov.uk/Category.asp?cat=126
2014-02-15
ARTIST ROOMS 2014: Bruce Nauman
Loan-out
28 May 2021 – 26 February 2023
2023-02-26
11 March 2022 – 11 July 2022
2022-07-11
2022-03-11
M Woods Museum (Beijing, China)
14 September 2022 – 26 February 2023
2023-02-26
2022-09-14
Pirelli HangarBicocca (Milan, Italy)
2021-05-28
Bruce Nauman
Loan-out
Changing Light Corridor with Rooms
Overall display dimensions variable
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Changing Light Corridor with Rooms</i> 1971 can be installed in several ways but always consists of a long, walled corridor, about thirty centimeters wide, from which two side rooms (one rectangular, the other triangular) can be reached half-way down. The darkness of the corridor is interrupted intermittently by harsh, flashing streams of light coming from the side rooms. The flashing occurs at a specified rate: in the rectangular room the lights are on for ten seconds, then off for four seconds; and in the triangular room they are on for seven seconds and off for two.</p>
<p>The work was constructed in Nauman’s studio in Los Angeles. Nauman began constructing intentionally discomforting corridors and environments after making his first <i>Performance Corridor</i> (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York) during a short stay in New York in 1969, just before moving to Los Angeles. Describing how he conceived of the corridor pieces Nauman has said:</p>
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</p><blockquote>A number of those corridor pieces came out of a dream. It was about being in a long corridor and there was a room at the end of the corridor. The light was a yellow-grey colour, dim. There was a figure on the left, unidentified. I had the dream so many times and I kind of figured it must be a part of myself I hadn’t identified. It seemed important to objectify myself.<br/>(Morgan 2002, p.41.) </blockquote>
<p>The work is a manifestation of the artist’s fascination with the affects that physical environments can have on people, especially the feeling of unease that comes from being in a space that is too compressed or too large. The structure of the work invites viewers to interact with it and to step into a space that could be physically or mentally disorientating. Once inside, viewers find themselves in a situation that simultaneously lures and repels. The side rooms offer a brief sense of liberation from the narrow corridor, yet they also produce a feeling of alienation and self-consciousness due to the intense, flashing light and confined space. Any sense of isolation, however, is affected by the possible presence of other visitors, which may heighten the viewers’ feelings of self-consciousness. </p>
<p>Activated by the presence of a moving body, <i>Changing Light Corridor with Rooms</i> requires viewers to become participants in the work, obliging them to follow the rules of an experimental situation established by the physical parameters of the space. The predicament in which this places the viewers may be compared to the situations endured by the protagonists in the writings of Samuel Beckett (1906–1989), such as <i>Happy Days</i> (1961), in which a woman is buried up to her neck in sand or <i>Waiting for Godot</i> (1953), in which two characters wait for a third character who never appears. Nauman’s interest in the writer’s work is made explicit by the very use of Beckett’s name in the title of the artist’s piece <i>Slow Walk (Beckett Walk) </i>(1968)<i>.</i> In <i>Changing Light Corridor with Rooms</i> this influence manifests itself through the artist’s capturing of a sense of life’s agitating yet comical perpetuity, his use of the absurd and the feeling of being watched or the tension of waiting for something to happen. </p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Paul Schimmel, <i>Bruce Nauman</i>, exhibition catalogue, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis 1994, p.77.<br/>Robert Morgan, <i>Bruce Nauman</i>, Baltimore 2002, p.41.<br/>Carlos Basualdo and Michael R. Taylor, <i>Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens</i>, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia Museum of Art 2009, p.102.</p>
<p>Agnieszka Gryczkowska<br/>October 2011</p>
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Summary
2020-08-10T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>During the 1960s and 1970s, Nauman created various claustrophobic and enclosed spaces that were designed to disorientate his audiences. In this installation, a long corridor is shrouded in darkness, whilst two rooms on either side are illuminated by bulbs that are timed to flash at different rates. The particular length and width of the corridor, together with the intensity of the intermittent lights, function to direct our movements as we traverse the space. No longer simply passive spectators, Nauman transforms us into active participants who are nevertheless controlled and manipulated by his reconstruction of the gallery’s layout.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
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ONLINE_CAPTION
anxiety dysfunction emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities interiors light lobby mystery public and municipal space universal concepts