Saatchi Yates presents a provocative two-person exhibition featuring the works of Nokukhanya Langa and Bruce Nauman. This show dives deep into the absurd, drawing a line between Langa’s radical contemporary art and Nauman’s conceptual films.
Langa’s new “Black Paintings” are paired with a survey of Nauman’s groundbreaking black and white films. Her Post-Minimalist aesthetic, filled with abstract motifs, lines, dots, and scribbles, complements Nauman’s repetitive, task-like exercises. Langa’s canvases, with their cryptic phrases and meaningless arrows, critique contemporary post-internet culture, highlighting futility, alienation, and online identity.
Both artists explore the interplay between image and language. Nauman’s films, dating back to 1965, feature repetitive actions that spotlight the mundane and the artist’s endurance. His work emphasizes meaning over aesthetics, using irony and wordplay to engage viewers and question reality. Langa, too, uses dark humor and absurd text to challenge power structures. Phrases like “dreams go Thru 2 gates” and “you wait for something you hold your breath” coupled with spiral symbols create a dialogue with Nauman’s ideas. Her work reflects how Nauman’s influence pervades a new generation of artists.
The show is on view at Saatchi Yates until August 16, 2024.
Saatchi Yates
14 Bury St.
St. James’s, London SW1Y 6AL
United Kingdom
