Bruce Nauman has reached an almost mythic status as a contemporary visual artist.  He is one of the few living artists whose is revered as a Great.  Hauser & Wirth present a new show of work by the Great artist: Bruce Nauman / mindfuck brings together a selection of works from Nauman’s career whose central concern is the convergence of mind, body, language, sex, death and language.  You know, only all the important things of life.

The first question that pops into this writers head is, ‘What gives Nauman the right to make work like this?’  Well, he’s an artist.  His job isn’t to explain, it’s to present a view of the world that is developed uniquely from his own (admittedly very wide) knowledge and experience.  It's a point of view that has been developed from the ovum of his studio, the sancturary of that womb and the recognition of his own intellectual nascency.  The display is predominantly comprised of installation and Nauman’s trademark neon sculptures.  The accompanying text and catalogue make much of the language of metapsychology that Nauman explores.  It’s a new reading of Nauman's work, and at points feels stretched, but for those of you with an interest in post-Freudian self-analysis, it's interesting stuff.

Because a show by Nauman is a show worth visiting.  Take the themes of the work and take its interpretations.  These are not things to be sniffed at.  Nauman is taking the very fundamentals of what makes us human and both reduces and highlights its absurdity, contradiction, difficulty and -- ultimately -- its sheer power.  Influential is not the right word to describe Nauman; it feels inadequate.  Whether your interest in art is spiritual, corporeal, political or visceral, Nauman’s work has something for you, and its something to mull over and keep with you.  It’s Great art.

Bruce Nauman / mindfuck is at Hauser & Wirth until 09 March.

header image:

'sex and death/double '69'', 1985
neon tubing on aluminium monolith
227 x 134.8 x 34 cm / 89 3/8 x 53 1/8 x 13 3/8 in
image © 2012 bruce nauman / artists rights society (ARS), new york / DACS london
private collection. courtesy hauser & wirth
photo: stefan altenburger photography zürich

second image

'run from fear, fun from rear', 1972 by bruce nauman
neon tubing with clear glass tubing suspension frame
two parts:
20.3 x 116.8 x 5.7 cm  / 8  x 46  x 2 1/4 in
18.4 x 113 x 5.7 cm  / 7 1/4 x 44 1/2 x 2 1/4 in
image © 2012 bruce nauman / artists rights society (ARS), new york / DACS london
private collection

Regular readers won’t be surprised to hear that Because loves film.  Because also isn’t shy to make grand, sweeping statements, so we can say with confidence that Quentin Tarantino is the most important filmmaker to have emerged in the past twenty years.  His films are the perfect postmodern mash-up of pop culture reference and classic cinema history.  Because would also be ashamed to admit that we haven’t yet seen Django Unchained, but it’s because we’ve been waiting for this.

The W Film Club is one of most luxurious cinematic experiences you can have in town.  For their current series (which kicked off a couple of weeks ago with a screening of The Life of Pi 3D and continues next month with screenings of Hitchcock, starring Sienna Miller, and the all-star cast comedy Movie 43), they are showing Tarantino’s spaghetti western revenge drama at their 39-seater, state of the art HD auditorium.  With tickets at £15 (with free popcorn) and £20 for VIP tickets, that include popcorn and drink from the W Lounge Bar, Because was surprised to see that it's actually the cheapest cinema in Leicester Square.

And what can we hope for the movie?  The polymathic Jamie Foxx continuing an incredible run of form that includes movies such as Collateral and Ray, for which he won a Best Actor Oscar.  Christophe Waltz continues a collaboration with Tarantino (the last of which, Inglorious Basterds netted him an Oscar, too).  Did we mention that it also stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson?  Frankly, it’s an embarrassment of riches.  It promises to be an epic, gun-slinging drawl through the American West with comic-book patter and lashings of…well, lashings.  It’s received five Oscar nominations already (including Best Picture, another nod for Waltz and another for Tarantino’s screenplay -- the latter two have been awarded at the recent Golden Globes).  The week that it’s been on release here has already been too long to wait.  Bring on Tuesday.

Django Unchained screens as part of the W Film Club at The W Hotel on Tuesday 29 January.  Tickets are available here.

It’s official: exhibition season has started again.  With Gerard Byrne opening at Whitechapel Gallery last week, tomorrow sees the opening of Woo! A new exhibition of work by German photographer Juergen Teller.

This is Teller’s first UK exhibition in a decade.  One of the finest photographers of his generation, Teller crosses with ease between the worlds of fashion, art and advertising. Coming to prominence in the 1980s, this new show traces a line through his career.  We have some of the first images of Kate Moss, modelling at fifteen; Teller’s cover image for Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 You; portraits of stars including Kurt Cobain and Vivienne Westwood; and the iconic images created for the ongoing Marc Jacobs advertising campaigns.

In addition, the exhibition presents a series of works from his weekly column in Germany’s Die Ziet Magazin, and two very recent series’, Irene im Wald and Keys to the House, which explore a more personal side to the flamboyant photographer, detailing his homes in Germany and Suffolk.

Instantly recognisable, is the one overriding aspect of Juergen Teller’s work.  Across fashion, art and advertising -- each of them a world of transience of their own -- this is high praise indeed.

Juergen Teller: Woo! opens at the ICA tomorrow, until 17 March.