In his practice, Nauman has centered the way in which an activity can transform and become a work of art. In the late 1960s, the artist created hour-long video works filmed on a static film camera depicting the artist engaging in repetitive, tedious tasks. These works, like Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square (1967) or Bouncing Two Balls Between The Floor and Ceiling with Changing Rhythms (1967-68), explore the processes of artistic production. “This thing can just repeat and repeat and repeat, ” Nauman says. “You can watch for a while, leave and go have lunch, or come back in a week, and it’s just going on. And I really liked that idea of the thing just being there. The idea being there, so that it became almost like an object that was there, that you could go back and visit whenever you wanted to.” Through the act of filming these actions, some tedious and some banal, the artist highlights the passage of time and subjects both the artist and the viewer to a test of endurance. In doing so, he allows his process to become the artwork, instilling meaning in meaningless actions. 

In addition to working with film and his body, Nauman also uses mediums such as neon lights and installations to investigate language and control. His work The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign) (1967) depicts a pink and blue spiral spelling out the title of the work. By mimicking neon signs typically found in bars, hotels, and supermarkets and imbuing the work with profound meaning, Nauman highlights the playful contradiction between the idea and the finished work. In other neon works, the artist features anagrams such as None Sing Neon Sign (1970) to comment on the subjectivity of the human language. Nauman also uses neon in his corridor room series, where he places bright fluorescent lights, mirrors, and surveillance cameras in tight walking spaces in order to manipulate viewers’ perception of space and time. Whether using film, installation, neon lights, or sculpture, Nauman looks to repetition, time, and wordplay in order to question and expand what it means to create art.