One Hundred Live and Die

Mediums: neon tubing mounted, four metal monoliths.
Location: the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Kagawa (Japan).

The composition consists of four columns containing 100 words. In terms of meaning, words are associated with life and death, with emotions, impressions and various human actions. It is also a poetic and beatingly vulgar flurry of lights, a cacophony of shining flowers and their shades. According to the idea of ​​the author, the work personifies human experience. Nauman developed a complex algorithm for “turning on” phrases: one after another, they instantly light up and go out, and then the columns light up one at a time. The “show of work” ends with lighting up of the entire work, starting from the foundation. Thus, the author created a visual symphony that characterizes Nauman’s love for the game of words, combined with those colour relations in which the author was also interested.