Bruce Nauman - Pinch Neck

This video “Pinch Neck” 1968, by Bruce Nauman, "features close-cropped images of Bruce Nauman's face framed by bridge of his nose to his Adam's apple by the width of his face. Within this frame Nauman, using his fingers, pinches his lips; pulls his lower lip; pinches his cheeks, pulls his neck; and pulls his lips" (http://www.mellart.com). This framing is something that can make the viewer discouraged over the two minutes and will make them want to see the whole body and not a cropped form. This however is playing into the meaning of the video.

"Nauman is attempting to maintain a kind of abstraction while playing in certain kinds of tangible and commonplace subject matter, such as the referents of the statistics found so much in conceptualism" (http://www.mellart.com). Nauman could be seen as using his body as a prop. In the Willoughby Sharp article “Body Works,” it is stated that “The body as a prop is related to the use of the body as a backdrop in that the body is presented in relation to other physical objects. But here the body exists in an identifiable field, as one particular among other particulars.” Nauman is using his face as the prop and is using his hands as the other “particulars” in a way to create and stretch his body in to the afore mentioned abstract forms. This stretching, pulling and wrenching of the skin could be viewed as possibly painful and curious. The Element of endurance is once again up for debate.