Untitled (Two Wolves, Two Deer)

Mediums: foam, wax, wire.
Location: private collection.

At the very end of the 1980s, after an almost twenty-year break, Nauman returned to the subject of otherwise seen and shockingly presented realities, including ordinary objects and animals. He again draws the viewer’s attention to the problem of violence, reviving his early formal carousel motif. He created his animal models from polyurethane foam using finished products found in a store in New Mexico. Monstrously destroying the harmony of anatomy, the artist “rebuilds” animals, turns them into monsters. At the same time, the overall composition resembles a massacre. In a related series, Nauman created strange pyramids of animals resembling altars.