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| "The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign), 1967.
Neon tubing with clear glass tubing suspension supports; 59 x 55 x 2 inches
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“The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign)”
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One of Nauman's first pieces, the neon sign "The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths" was initially displayed in the artist's grocery storefront studio. Hung in a window that faced the street, the artist's sign proclaims a private thought to a general public. Inspired by a beer sign that belonged to the former San Francisco grocery, Nauman's sign uses a public and familiar means of communication to relate an idea. Wanting to make art that didn't look like art, Nauman's neon sign was just another advertisement on the street, making a subtle impact on the consciousness of those who simply passed by. The occasional pedestrian who stopped to consider the work would have been confronted with an anonymous, moral conviction in an unusually public circumstance.
What are we to make of this curious statement? Should we believe it? Is this the artist's subjective opinion, or something that is objectively true? Even Nauman has stated an ambivalence towards the sign: "The most difficult thing about the whole piece for me was the statement. It was a kind of test - like when you say something out loud to see if you believe it. Once written down, I could see that the statement [...] was on the one hand a totally silly idea and yet, on the other hand, I believed it. It's true and not true at the same time. It depends on how you interpret it and how seriously you take yourself. For me it's still a very strong thought." The spiral of the text is both mythic and goofy, mirroring the way in which the seriousness of the phrase can flip-flop. An age-old icon, the spiral is often used to symbolize patterns in nature, time, and the universe. And yet Nauman's spiral is fat, neon, and made with garish colors. One may even find oneself tilting one's head to read the words, only to discover a phrase elliptical in its meaning. Nauman's sign can function as a mantra, joke, reminder, or dare - depending on how one approaches it. As perplexing to the artist as it might be to a passerby, the neon sign invites viewers to investigate the meaning of words and to decide - for themselves - whether or not they believe what the statement says. Difficult to prove or disprove, it takes a leap of faith from the outset to believe that one person can help the world or that "mystical truths" even exist. Rather than write the statement in a journal and debate what it means in private, Nauman makes his uncertainty a public affair. At a time when the young artist was questioning what it means to be an artist (a maker of non-utilitarian objects) and during a historical period fraught with political unrest and injustice (the late 1960s), Nauman's sign is an investigation into the meaning of his own activity. Resonant with the popular idea that "knowledge is power," Nauman's work questions the artist's relationship to a cultural equation.
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