Director, Glenn Lowry: This is part of a series of fiberglass and polyester resin sculptures made by Bruce Nauman when he was still in art school. In 2012, he described making this early work that began as a wood and cardboard mold.
Artist, Bruce Nauman: It was a quick and easy way to make volumetric shapes. The resin is brushed into place with color in it, and then the pieces of fiberglass are put in place, and then more resin is brushed on.
The first pieces were much more monochromatic and not transparent or translucent. And as they progressed, I was sort of just trying out all of the different kind of things you could do to it. Because it does have that transparency, which the light helps you see.
Glenn Lowry: Illuminated from within, all the irregularities of the material are made visible: the differences in opacity, the shifting density of color and even the flicker of glitter. Curator, Leah Dickerman.
Leah Dickerman: And it does something that's very unusual in 20th Century sculpture. It gives the work a sense of insides that are made apparent. And that's a kind of bodily notion that a sculpture would have: an inside.