Showcasing the diversity of Bruce Nauman’s expansive practice, ‘Dead End Tunnel Folded into Four Arms with Common Walls’ (1980) and ‘Hanging Heads #1 (Blue Andrew, Mouth Open / Red Julie with Cap)’ (1989) are united by their exploration of complex psychological tensions. The radiating quasi-architectural structure of ‘Dead End Tunnel Folded into Four Arms with Common Walls’ interrogates perception and bodily experience through four twisting arms that taper and expand from one end to the other, ultimately resulting in non-functional dead ends. Meditating upon scale and space, this large wood and plaster sculpture is presented as a model, disorientating the viewer by inviting them to imagine a monumental structure that would engulf the surrounding environment.

Developing his disruptive approach to sculpture, Nauman’s evocative ‘Hanging Heads #1’ was the first of four unique pairs of suspended cast-wax heads executed by the artist, subsequent examples of which are held by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Museum Ludwig, Cologne. An ingenious subversion of the sculptural bust that masterfully blends the disquieting and the surreal, this work was exhibited on long-term loan at the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt from 1991 to 2005.

‘My work comes out of being frustrated about the human condition. And about how people refuse to understand other people.’