Bruce Nauman
«Perfect Balance (Pink Andrew with plug hanging with T.V.)»

Perfect Balance (Pink Andrew with Plug Hanging with T.V.)
On a video monitor, a different work [...] shows animal sculptures. In front of this a hand, the middle finger extended and pointing upwards. Rebelliously on the monitor, seen in the reverse and hanging down from above, is the head of man made of red wax, the tongue hanging out. This seems rather puzzling at first. But isn’t what puzzles often the first thing that captures the viewer’s attention when standing before many of Nauman’s works? [...] One also feels reminded of puzzling elements in many of Max Beckmann’s paintings: through puzzlement, the power of what is meant to be conveyed is heightened. But what is actually being conveyed? Before a circus of deformed animals, a finger points upward. Also pointing upward is the reversed male head, with its spewing tongue. To an extent, it balances itself on the finger and really does manage a «Perfect Balance» or balancing act.

(Source: Franz Meyer, «Revealing Mystic Truths—Mitteilung durch Verrätselung», in: Bruce Nauman—Skulpturen und Installationen 1985–1990, Jörg Zutter (eds.), Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel and the Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut Frankfurt am Main, DuMont: Cologne, 1990, pp. 22f.)